European policies are shaping the future of heating in buildings. On the one hand, there are Green Deal Industrial Plans targeting to phase out most stand-alone boilers and decarbonize heating by widely adopting heat pumps; on the other hand, one of the heat pumps’ key components, fluorinated refrigerants, is strictly regulated.
The use of low GWP (Global Warming Potential) refrigerants is one viable approach for increasing heat pump installation while reducing emissions. This study is particularly focused on R-454C because of its low GWP, favorable safety profile, performance and circularity. Furthermore, R-454C has handling practices that are extremely similar to refrigerants that have been used for decades, making it easier for technicians to accept and use. This HFO refrigerant requires less training effort to grow and convert specialists from other fields.
It is widely recognized that the effects of direct refrigerant emissions on climate change are significantly less than the indirect impact of energy consumed by the heat pump during its whole lifetime. That is why, in this study, the level of optimization achievable when using R-454C to develop new heat pumps with remarkably high efficiency is investigated. Based on experimental data from a third-party research institute, the benefits of employing optimized R-454C heat pumps to enable European decarbonization of heating strategies, reduce energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions, have been assessed.
