Preparing for the new positioning of R-32 as an alternative refrigerant with testo 550, 557

25 February 2020

Preparing for the new positioning of R-32 as an alternative refrigerant with testo 550, 557

1 st January 2015, the European Union urged the progressive replacement of many refrigerants with alternatives offering less environmental impact. Today everything seems to indicate that R-32 has become the preferred choice of most firms for domestic air conditioning applications, in place of R-410A.

Among the benefits that R-32 offers air conditioning manufacturers is its greater energy efficiency and lower environmental, compared to R-410A, traditionally used previously. R-32 has a PCA index (Atmospheric Heating Potential) of 675, which complies with the limit established for the year 2025 by the European Regulation CE 517/2014, or F-GAS regulation, and converts it into a greener gas. In addition, with R-32 the equipment consumes less energy and offers greater savings, requiring between 20-30% less refrigerant charge.

In any installation, the engineer must guarantee the efficiency of the system and its tightness, both to ensure optimum operation, and to minimise any harmful effects on the environment. Testo, as a leading manufacturer of digital instrumentation, has already rushed to ensure that its refrigeration instrumentation is compatible with the new R-32 refrigerant.

This is the case for the testo 550 and 557 digital refrigeration manifolds, which are valid for both refrigeration and heat pump installations and can be used for 60 refrigerants including R-32. Importantly, the testo digital manifolds are easily updated for other future refrigerants that may used such as R-448A / R-449A.