Making use of low GWP refrigerant

Airedale International Air Conditioning first to market with production range of TurboChill™ free cooling chillers using low GWP refrigerant.

  • Tuesday, 5th November 2013 Posted 11 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Airedale International Air Conditioning believes it will be the first to launch a production range of high performance free cooling chillers using the low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant R1234ze.

R1234ze is a hydro-fluoro olefin (HFO) based refrigerant with a low GWP of six compared with GWPs approaching 1,300 for more traditional refrigerants such as R134a which are expected to be phased out by 2030. One of the so-called ‘fourth generation’ refrigerants, HFOs are olefins or ‘unsaturated’ hydrocarbons which readily break down in the atmosphere within a very short lifetime of just a few days in comparison with 13 years for their previous generation counterparts.


In recognition of its low global warming impact, the TurboChill™ free cooling chiller (TCF) with R1234ze automatically receives two BREEAM points. In contrast, R134a TurboChill™ TCC and TCF variants receive one point for their Direct Effect Life Cycle (DELC) CO2 equivalent emissions of ≤1000 kgCO2e/kW cooling capacity and a further point for leak detection and automatic shutdown and pump-down of refrigerant.


Energy efficiency is a key design criterion across Airedale’s entire range of chillers, precision air conditioning and IT cooling systems which offer industry-leading part-load performance and energy efficiency for footprint. All models in the TurboChill™ range have been designed to meet the criteria established by the Energy Technology List and selected models* qualify for a 100% first year capital allowance under the Government’s Enhanced Capital Allowance (ECA) scheme. (*Accreditation of remaining models is pending).


The TurboChill™ FreeCool (TCF) offers twice as much free cooling as a thermosiphon free cooling system and can deliver free cooling for up to 95% of the year1. By constant monitoring of temperature differences, Airedale’s control software permits concurrent free cooling - a mixture of free cooling and mechanical cooling – switching on the mechanically-driven compressor only when extra cooling is required.


The R1234ze TurboChill™ free cooling (TCF) range will be released at the end of 2013 alongside a 1,600kW dual circuit TurboChill™ incorporating R134a, delivering redundancy back-up and quicker compressor start-up to full load capacity in a 500kW higher capacity model.