Daikin Announces First U.S. Supermarket Retrofit of R-22 to Creard R-407H Refrigerant

ORANGEBURG, N.Y. –At the TOPS store in Alden, New York, 1,200 pounds of Creard R-407H has been used to provide more than 25 cooling tons in medium-temperature refrigerated cases and displays. It has replaced R-22.

Daikin’s new Creard R-407H refrigerant is an economical, low-GWP blend designed for new refrigeration systems and as a replacement for R-22, R-404A and R-507 in existing systems. Creard R-407H has a GWP of 1,380 (Assessment Report 5), one of the lowest GWP options for refrigeration systems, providing a unique combination of outstanding performance while being economical relative to the products it is replacing.

Customer requirements and results:

The Daikin Engineering team worked closely with TOPS to address the following key requirements:

• A GWP of <1500 to position TOPS with a sustainable solution for the useful life of the equipment in the event of any future climate related regulatory policies
• Equivalent or better energy efficiency and refrigeration capacity across the entire operating range
• A close match in temperature, pressure and volumetric flow rate properties to R-22, in order to utilize the same expansion devices, distribution system and piping
• Traditional chemistry, with proven material compatibility with legacy R-22 equipment
• Cost-effectiveness in long-term operation

After the conversion from R-22 to Creard R-407H, the system was monitored for three months (March through May, 2018). Throughout the test, data was collected related to operating pressures, temperatures and the energy consumption of the system. The power consumption during the test months when compared to R-22 was 2 percent higher after the first fill and system shakedown, and then improved to .5 percent lower energy consumption after the controller was tuned. The cooling capacity remained the same between R-22 and R-407H.

TDH Refrigeration performed the retrofit during a single overnight shift, following traditional retrofit procedures.

“We followed the same conversion steps as with other commercially available retrofit refrigerants,” said Bob Randon, president, TDH Refrigeration. “The R-22 to R-407H refrigerant conversion was completed with only a few adjustments required at system EPR valves. Monitoring of equipment operation and product temperatures post conversion have provided good results.”