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▶ Energy Efficiency    ▶ High Performance   ▶ Natural Refrigerant   ▶ Technology    ▶ Installation   ▶ Quality   ▶ Technical Info
▶ Energy Efficiency    ▶ High Performance  
▶ Natural Refrigerant   ▶ Technology   
▶ Installation   ▶ Quality   ▶ Technical Info

Natural Refrigerant

Natural Refrigerant Table.JPG

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions

A 2015 research article by Hong & Howarth of Cornell University compared the total emissions of methane and CO₂ from water heaters using different fuel types and different electricity generation sources.  They found that "The greatest net climatic benefit within the 20-year time frame was predicted to be achieved when a storage natural gas water heater (the most common system for domestic hot water in the United States) fueled by shale gas was replaced with a high efficiency heat pump water heater powered by coal- generated electricity; the heat pump system powered by renewable electricity would have had an even greater climatic benefit, but was not explicitly modeled in this study. Our analysis provides the first assessment of the GHG footprint associated with using a heat pump water heater, which we demonstrate to be an effective and economically viable way of reducing emissions of GHGs."

*Global Warming Potential (GWP) is a measure of how much a given mass of greenhouse gas is estimated to contribute to global warming. It is a relative scale which compares the gas in question to that of the same mass of carbon dioxide (whose GWP is equal to 1).

Since 2006 all refrigerants are required to have a zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP).  This was legislated as part of the Montreal Protocol in an effort to protect the Ozone layer surrounding the Earth.
 

More recently, focus has been on the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of refrigerants.  The GWP is a measurement of the heat absorbed by a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere over a period of time, and is a standardized metric of how much a given pollutant contributes to Global Warming.
 

The GWP of a gas refers to the total contribution to global warming resulting from the emission of one unit of that Gas relative to one unit of the reference gas (CO₂), which is assigned a value of 1.
 

GWP’s are typically measured as the impact of that Greenhouse Gas over a period of 100 Years.
 

Many States and Provinces, such as California, are now scrutinizing refrigerant GWP’s and requiring the use of low GWP refrigerants, typically those with a GWP below 750.

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R134a is the refrigerant most commonly used in Heat Pump Water Heaters (HPWH).

  • A single HPWH typically contains approx. 22oz (1.375lbs) of R134a.

  

  • 1lb of R134a has a 100-year GWP of 1,430.

  

  • Therefore, the refrigerant in a single HPWH has the potential for a contribution to Global Warming of 1,966.25 times an equivalent quantity of CO₂ over a 100-year period.

  

  • A SANCO₂ unit contains 22.9oz (1.43lbs) of CO₂

  

  • 1lb of CO₂ has a 100-year GWP of 1

  

  • Therefore, the refrigerant in a SANCO₂ unit has the potential for a contribution to Global Warming of 1.43 over the same period.

This represents a saving in Greenhouse Gas Emissions of 1,964.8, or by using the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) online calculator at:


https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator


This shows a saving in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that produced by burning 100 gallons of gasoline or charging 113,000 smartphones.


The SANCO₂ truly is the most environmentally friendly HPWH on the market!

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