OzonAction Kigali Fact Sheet 9
OzonAction
Technical Issues: High Ambient Temperature
Background:
The main use of HCFCs and HFCs is in refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pump applications (RACHP).
These sectors represent around 86% of the GWP-weighted use of HCFCs and HFCs (see Kigali Fact Sheet
2). It is recognised in the Kigali Amendment that designing RACHP systems for operation at extremely high
ambient temperature (HAT) creates several special challenges. For air-conditioning systems, these
challenges include:
a) The heat loads are higher than in milder climates
b) Heat is rejected by the air-conditioning system at a higher condensing temperature than in milder
climates
These factors mean that air-conditioning systems operating at high ambient temperature need to have a
greater cooling capacity for a given room size and that they use more energy than equivalent air-conditioning
systems that operate in milder climates.
In this Fact Sheet some of the technical issues related to the operation of air-conditioning systems at high
ambient temperature are discussed. This Fact Sheet also provides information about the HAT Exemption that
is part of the Kigali Amendment.
These challenges can apply to all refrigerants:
It is important to recognise that the technical challenges related to operation under HAT conditions are not
caused by the proposed phase-down of HFC refrigerants. Many refrigerants, including some of the high GWP
HFCs are not ideally suited to operation at high ambient temperature. Designers of refrigeration and air-
conditioning equipment have always had to take ambient temperature into account and ensure the refrigerant
selected can operate efficiently and reliably. Equipment that is specified for use in countries with HAT
conditions has to be designed in a slightly different way to the
equipment used in milder climates. Two characteristics of the Figure 1
refrigerant selected are especially important:
Critical temperature. A property of all refrigerants is the “critical
temperature”. This is the temperature at the critical point for the
refrigerant, as illustrated in Figure 1, which is a pressure-enthalpy
diagram1 for a refrigerant. For an air-conditioning cycle to have good
efficiency it is important that the condensing temperature is not too
close to the critical temperature. The condensing temperature is
always higher than the
ambient temperature, so the
Figure 2 condensing temperature
under HAT conditions will be higher than in a milder climate; hence it
will be closer to the critical temperature and less energy efficient.
Figure 2 shows two air-conditioning cycles plotted on the diagram. The
green cycle is for operation in a mild climate and the red cycle is
operating at higher ambient temperature. When operating at high
ambient temperature the air-conditioning system:
does less cooling (the red cooling kW line is shorter)
needs more electric power (the red power kW line is longer)
1
See Kigali Fact Sheet 14 for a glossary of all acronyms used including pressure – enthalpy diagram
This illustrates why all air-conditioning systems operating at high ambient will use more electricity than a unit
running in cooler conditions.
The loss of energy efficiency becomes especially severe if the critical temperature of the refrigerant being used
is low. The adjacent table lists the critical temperature of a number of refrigerants that are used in air-
conditioning systems.
It is important to note that HCFC-22 has a reasonably high
critical temperature. The most commonly used high GWP Critical
Refrigerant Temperature
HFC that has replaced HCFC-22 is R-410A. This has one oC
of the lowest critical temperatures and it is likely to perform
less efficiently at high ambient temperature than HCFC-22. HFO-1233zd 165
For small split and ducted air-conditioning units HFC-32 has
R-717 (ammonia) 132
been introduced as a lower GWP alternative to R-410A – it
has a GWP of 675, compared to 2,088 for R-410A. The HFO-1234ze 110
critical temperature of HFC-32 is higher than R-410A, so a
move to this lower GWP alternative will have benefits under HFC-134a 101
HAT conditions. However, HFC-32 is an A2L lower
flammability refrigerant (see Kigali Fact Sheet 10 for details R-290 (propane) 96.7
about flammability) and it may not be applicable in larger
systems in many countries. HCFC-22 96.1
Propane can offer high efficiency, but it is an A3 higher HFC-32 78.1
flammability refrigerant and can only be considered for very
small systems. R-410A 71.4
R-744 has a much lower critical temperature than any other R-744 (CO2) 31.0
commonly used refrigerant. For air-conditioning it needs to
operate as a “transcritical” cycle 2 (heat is rejected above the critical temperature). This makes R-744 less
efficient and hence unsuited to most air-conditioning in HAT conditions.
The biggest challenge is for medium and large sized multi-split air-conditioning equipment, including variable
refrigerant flow (VRF) systems, where a flammable refrigerant might not be applicable and where R-410A is
not well suited to high ambient operation.
Larger chilled water plants for building air-conditioning pose much less of a problem. As the water chiller is
usually located in a restricted access location (e.g. a special machinery room or a roof-top) it is possible to
consider a range of refrigerants including flammable options such as HFO-1234ze or R-290. These have
reasonably high critical temperatures which make then well suited to operation at high ambient temperature.
For very large chillers, low pressure refrigerants such as HFO-1233zd are applicable. These have very high
critical temperatures and can have very high energy efficiency.
Compressor discharge temperature. Another important characteristic is the compressor discharge
temperature. Under HAT conditions the compressor of an air-conditioning system needs to operate across a
greater pressure ratio than would occur in a milder climate. This causes the discharge temperature from the
compressor to reach a higher level. In some circumstances this creates extra technical problems that can
reduce the reliability of the compressor.
Very high discharge temperatures can be mitigated with extra cooling of the compressor, although this adds
to capital cost and can reduce energy efficiency. It is important that designers ensure that the compressor
discharge temperature remains within acceptable limits.
2
See Kigali Fact Sheet 14 for a description of transcritical, sub-critical and cascade cycles
On-going Research, Testing and Development:
In recognition of the importance of finding a high efficiency low GWP option for air-conditioning systems, there
is a lot of development work being undertaken by equipment manufacturers and refrigerant producers. There
are also several independent testing programmes underway, including:
PRAHA: Promoting low GWP Refrigerants for Air-Conditioning Sectors in High-Ambient Temperature
Countries
EGYPRA: Egyptian Project for Refrigerant Alternatives
ORNL: the Oak Ridge National Laboratory High-Ambient-Temperature Evaluation Program for Low-
Global Warming Potential (Low-GWP) Refrigerants
AREP: the AHRI Low GWP Alternative Refrigerants Evaluation Program
These independent tests show how different refrigerants perform under HAT conditions. The latest results
from these test programmes can be accessed via http://ozone.unep.org
The HAT Exemption:
The Kigali Amendment includes an exemption mechanism that can be used in countries with high ambient
temperatures for certain applications that cannot use low GWP alternatives. The HAT exemption is an
additional exemption process to the Critical Use and Essential Use exemptions that are included in the
Montreal Protocol and could be applied to HFC applications.
Definition of HAT: For the HAT exemption to apply, a country must have an average of at least two months
per year over ten consecutive years with a peak monthly average temperature above 35oC3.
Countries identified: The following countries have been assessed as meeting the above HAT definition:
Algeria, Bahrain, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea,
Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mali,
Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Togo,
Tunisia, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates.
Registering for the HAT exemption: to use the exemption a Party must be in the list above and must have
formally notified the Secretariat of its intent to use this exemption no later than one year before the HFC freeze
date, and every four years thereafter should it wish to extend the exemption.
Equipment types covered by HAT exemption:
(a) Multi-split air conditioners (commercial and residential)
(b) Split ducted air conditioners (commercial and residential)
(c) Ducted commercial packaged (self-contained) air-conditioners
Adjustment of equipment covered: the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel and outside experts
on high ambient temperatures will assess the suitability of HFC alternatives and recommend sub-sectors to
be added to or removed from the above list and report this information to the Meeting of the Parties. These
assessments will take place periodically starting four years from the HFC freeze date and every four years
thereafter.
Reporting: any party operating under the HAT exemption must report separately its production and
consumption data for the sub-sectors to which the exemption applies.
3 This definition is based on spatially weighted average temperatures deriving the daily highest temperatures, using
the Centre for Environmental Data Archival:
http://browse.ceda.ac.uk/browse/badc/cru/data/cru_cy/cru_cy_3.22/data/tmx
OzonAction
UN Environment (UNEP) 1 rue Miollis, Building VII www.unep.org/ozonaction
Economy Division Paris 75015, France [email protected]
