Alternative Refrigerant Performance: Field Test of a Nonchlorofluorocarbon Chiller at Fort Leonard Wood, MO.

Production of chlorofluorocarbon CFC refrigerants will stop permanently by the end of 1995, and air-conditioning and refrigeration ACR systems will have to use alternatives to CFC. The U.S. Armys ACR systems have a total cooling capacity of more than 1 million tons approximately 55 percent of these systems use CFC-based refrigerants. Chillers currently using CFC refrigerants must be replaced or converted to operate with non-CFC refrigerants. The U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories USACERL and the U.S. Army Center for Public Works USACPW are doing research to find an efficient, alternative refrigerant for Army installations. The current project monitored the performance of a non-CFC R-134a centrifugal chiller at Fort Leonard Wood FLW, MO. Performance of this chiller under field conditions was compared with the manufacturers published ratings. Operational characteristics of the R-134a chiller were obtained by measuring electrical energy consumption, cooling delivered to the chiller cooling loop, and heat rejected by the condenser. Results indicated an average performance of approximately 0.68 kilowatts per ton kWton for the study period. The manufacturers design projection was 0.73 kWton. The performance evaluation of the R-134a system shows that it is an efficient addition to the FLW facility. jg