More About The Grant Aerona³ R32 Air Source Heat Pump Range
Air source heat pumps use refrigerants to help them convert heat energy from the air outside and use this to provide heating to our homes. For the last few years, R32 refrigerant has been commonly used in heat pumps and as heat pump technology has evolved, the type of refrigerant used in some heat pumps is also changing. In this blog, we take a closer look at R290 refrigerant and its role in home heating.
Air source heat pumps are playing an important part in helping to decarbonise home heating, being a core pillar in the future of low carbon heating. Within every heat pump, there is refrigerant gas which has a key role in the operation of a heat pump, enabling the production of useful heat that can warm the rooms in your home and provide hot water to your taps (read more about how air source heat pumps work in our Education Area). A number of refrigerants are used in heat pumps, such as R32 refrigerant, and as with any refrigerant gas, these can have an impact on the environment, specifically on the ozone layer. Some refrigerant gases have less of an environmental impact than others and legislation has encouraged the move towards these more environmentally friendly refrigerants, such as R290.
In this blog, we explain more about what R290 refrigerant is, some of its benefits, its safety, and share a comparison between R32 refrigerant (used in the award-winning Aerona³ R32 heat pumps) and R290 refrigerant (which used in the new Aerona 290 heat pump range).
What is R290 used for?
R290 refrigerant gas (which is the technical name for this natural hydrocarbon) is better known at the gas Propane and it is already widely used, for example in air conditioning systems and refrigeration, with its use in low carbon air source heat pump systems increasing as well. A hydrocarbon, R290 is non-toxic, odourless and has excellent thermodynamic properties which means that it can efficiently absorb heat energy from the air (when in a gas state) and transfer this to the wider heating system (when it cools into a liquid state). In addition to being highly energy efficient, R290 is also more sustainable compared to other refrigerants.
Inside a heat pump, R290 refrigerant is used in exactly the same way as R32 refrigerant with the refrigerant entering a cycle of changing from a liquid to a gas and back to a liquid. In the evaporator, where the air is drawn into the heat pump, the R290 refrigerant is exposed to the air where the refrigerant boils off to a gas and absorbs the latent heat energy from the air. As a gas, the R290 refrigerant is them compressed (in the heat pump’s compressor) where the heat content is increased further before the gas passes through the heat exchanger. At this point, the R290 gas condenses back to a liquid and it transfers its heat to the water in the heating system before re-circulating and repeating this cycle.
What are the benefits of using a R290 heat pump?
As well as being a more environmentally friendly refrigerant, R290 offers a range of other benefits to heat pumps including excellent efficiencies and low noise levels. We have outlined some of these benefits below but for a more in-depth look at the advantages of R290 heat pumps, please visit our Knowledge Hub.
Good for the environment
Every refrigerant gas has a GWP value calculated. GWP stands for Global Warming Potential which represents the amount of time a gas remains active in the atmosphere and its impact on warming the atmosphere during this time. For example, R410a refrigerant, which was used in heat pumps several years ago, had a GWP of 2088. Meanwhile, R32 refrigerant has a GWP of 675. R290 refrigerant, which is a natural refrigerant, has a very low GWP of just 3 so it is deemed to be more environmentally friendly than other refrigerants and this is one of the reasons why its use in heat pumps will be increasing.
Regulations set out by the European Union and adopted by the UK Government are striving to reduce the use of F-gases (fluorinated greenhouse gasses), which are human-made, in favour of natural gases, such as R290. The use of R290 refrigerant in heat pumps, such as Grant’s new Aerona 290 air-to-water heat pump, will therefore further help this low carbon heating technology to be even more environmentally friendly by using a refrigerant that has an incredibly low GWP.
Efficiency
As mentioned earlier, R290 has excellent thermodynamic properties which enables it to capture heat energy and release it again in a very effective way within a heat pump, which in turn makes the system itself very efficient. As a result, the Grant Aerona 290 achieves an A+++ ErP energy rating at 35°C flow temperature.
