Propane Heat Pump - This is a new one to me

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peakbagger

Minister of Fire
Jul 11, 2008
8,776
Northern NH

Always a different way to "skin the proverbial cat"
 
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R410a phase out means the switch to flammable refrigerants. Neat thing about this unit was is how you can combine up to four units. I have seen a lot going this route.

Edit these are big commercial units. Starting at roughly 15 tons. Can we just all agree and ditch btus and tons for thermal capacity already!!!
 
I am in the HVAC industry. The industry is switching to lower GWP refrigerants. Most, if not all, will be slightly flammable. This will be mandatory by next year.
 
When I saw the headline at first I thought it was a heat pump that runs on propane, like the old gas refrigerators.
But really using R-290 as a refrigerant is such a no-brainer, for most of the past decade I wished people would put as much energy into safety engineering as they did complaining about the risks. Glad to see some progress being made.
 
We've got a deep freeze that uses cyclopentane as the refrigerant, no issues.

I've also worked on large refrigeration units for gas plants that use propane as the working medium, last one was a 2,500hp electric drive compressor. Usually takes a couple truck loads of propane to fill those systems.