Creation of comfortable environment

Most people think air conditioning is just cooling

But there are several other factors to be considered.

Following activities are needed to be fulfilled for proper air conditioning.

1 Controlling of temperature.
2 Controlling of relative humidity.
3 Creation of air movement.
4 Purification of air.
5 Maintenance of indoor air quality.
6 Controlling of Microbial growth.

For energy efficient air conditioning following factors need to be considered.

1 Proper cooling load estimation.
2 Selection of Environmentally friendly new refrigerants.
3 Selection of energy efficient equipment.
4 Proper installation.
5 Considering of life cycle cost than initial cost

Cooling load estimation

Complete heat gain to the required area need to be worked out in proper manner to
calculate the cooling load

Environment friendliness

The refrigerant used in the system should not adversely affect on the environment
Refrigerant that causes the increase of ODP and GWP should not use.
Some refrigerants are already in the process of phase out.
Those refrigerants should not be selected to use in the air conditioning system.
R-22 is due to phase out in the near future.
Instead of R-22 R 410A has introduced
R410A is a mixture of refrigerant (zeotropic mixture)
Once leaked R 410A cannot be replenished.
When most volatile component is leaked from a system it cannot cool properly
Difficult to recover recycle and reuse.
Need to take out all the refrigerant evacuate and charge again.
This could be very expensive and will increase the cost of air conditioning.
As they are also going to be phased out existing air conditioners may not be able to repair and use.
Solution for this is to use R-32 and R-290
But R-290 is more flammable than R-32
R-32 is the next generation refrigerant
R- 32 is a single component.
R-32 can be replenished, recover recycle and re use.
R-32 is a low GWP refrigerant.
It is the most balanced refrigerant for future use with low power consumption.
Electrical power consumption of R-32 is less than R 410A.

Daikin inverter R-32 air conditioner can save power up to 64%
Daikin uses Swing compressors with the lowest power consumptions.
Daikin uses Neodymium magnets.
They are 10 times power full than ferrite magnets.
Therefore, it is the most efficient inverter Air conditioner.

Maintenance of air conditioners

Air conditioners need to be periodically serviced
Both the heat exchangers(condenser/evaporator) need to be clean to remove outside dust particles.
Periodically, Inner surface of them also need to clean .
If not those contaminants work as a thermal insulation.
Need to replace compressor oil as recommended by the oil manufacturer
In motor vehicles, engine coolant need to check and do the needful.
In other air conditioners coolant like Glycol also need to be check and replace.
Need to charge refrigerant by weight and check overall performance.

Refrigerants

CFC refrigerants were introduced in 1928
Ozone depletion due to the release of CFC’S were identified in 1974
It took 46 years to identify the harmfulness of CFC’s.

In the same way even the newly introduced refrigerant could be harmful to the atmosphere.

Therefore, any foreign chemical which is not present in our natural environment should not release to the atmosphere.

It is the duty of the users and the maintenance people of air conditioning industry to protect the environment without releasing such chemicals.

There will be less break downs, if the air conditioning system is well maintained, serviced and carryout the preventive maintenance work .
Therefore, releasing of such chemicals also will be less.
Such systems can cut down the cost of production in an industry.

Refrigerant must recover recycle and reuse.
All the precautionary measures must be taken to minimize the releasing of refrigerant and such other chemicals.
Most effective way of controlling the releasing of refrigerant is to minimize the breakdowns.

HOW TO PURCHASE QUALITY REFRIGERANT

Look for the Manufacturers web address and postal address on the can.
Go through the manufacturers website.
Confirm with the manufacturer.
Look for the production registration certificates.
Look for quality certificates and test certificates
Confirm the method followed is AHRI-700- 2017.

Do not purchase refilled refrigerant.
Always look for manufacturer’s factory filled refrigerants.

How to minimize the break downs

Periodical services
Preventive maintenance work
Use of quality spare parts
Use of quality lubricant
This is the most important aspect to consider.
Lubrication is very important
Equipment manufacturer has recommended the correct type oil and the required quantity
Old CFC and HCFC refrigerants used with Mineral oil.
As new refrigerants (HFC) are not miscible with new refrigerants
Therefore, synthetic oil must be used with these HFC refrigerants.

As synthetic oil is expensive some unscrupulous people use mineral oil for new systems.
It is very harmful to the equipment as well as the environment.
Life time of the equipment will be drastically reduced.
Repair and maintenance cost will be very high.
Cost of production in an industry will go up.
Finally, due to the use of wrong oil, equipment may need to discard and spend for a new system.

Therefore, it is necessary to emphasis that the use of wrong oil is the main reason for the failures in Air conditioning and refrigeration systems.

Majority of the oil in Sri Lankan market are fake oils.
In some containers, chemical composition and the manufacturers contact details and websites are not printed.
They are definitely fake oils. That is why the fake oil manufacturer do not print that information.

The genuine oil manufacturer always prints all such information on the container.
Before purchasing of such oil, it is necessary to ascertain about these facts.
Always purchase oil packed by the oil manufacturer.
As synthetic oils are hygroscopic cannot repack in other places except in well-organized factories.
When handling, if moisture and air enter in to the system, oil will become unusable.
Therefore, oil exposed to the atmosphere for more than 15 minutes must not be used.
Oil gun must be used to charge oil.
If not moisture and air can enter in to the system and destroy the system.

Some fake oil manufacturers copy the famous brand names to hoodwink the customers.

Most famous copying has done with the Emkarate brand
Because it is the number one oil in the world.
But they can be easily identified.
The original Emkarate oil can is blue in colour.
Other fake one has a metalic colour.
Fake can is filled with mineral oil and the genuine one is filled with POE(Polyalkylene glycol)
The manufacturers of emekarate brand changed in 2007.
Then the new manufacturer Lubrizol change the can.
The address of the genuine can is

Lubrizol Corporation
2300, James Savage Road
Midland, MI48642, U.S.A

TEL- 1-989-496-3780
Email: sales@cpifluideng.com

But the address on the fake can differs.
Various fake manufacturers use different ones.
But web address on both the cans are same.
It is EMKARATERL.COM
But when search in the website only the genuine can is appeared.
Another way of identification is the capacity.
Fake cans have only 01Land 4L capacity
But Genuine one has following capacities. 01L, 5L, 20L
Mostly fake cans are printed with RL 32 and RL 68.
But genuine one has following viscosity grades.
RL-22, RL-32, RL 46, RL-68, RL-100, RL 170, RL 220, Rl 220 Plus

For mobile air conditioners Polyalkylene glycol (PAG) is the recommended lubricant.
PAG is used in systems with R-134a, R-1234yf, Carbon monoxide.
There are four viscosity grades of PAG OIL
1). PAG 46
2). PAG 100
3). PAG 125
4). PAG 150

These oils are mixed with UV dye to facilitate the detection of leak.

Brand new vehicle from the factory comes with PAG oil
But some unscrupulous people mix it with mineral oil.
These two oils can react together and form harmful substances.

It shows operating cost is 95%
If the operating cost can be lowered cost of Air conditioning also can be lowered.
According to the above factors if the power consumption could be lowered life cycle cost also will become lower.