Guest bio
Dean Groff, Food Retail Service Contracts Manager for Danfoss, has over 30 years of experience in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry in a variety of functions, including Materials Management, Global Product Management and Program Management.
Groff currently serves on the Technical Committee for the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufactures (NAFEM) and is a member of several AHRI working groups dealing with regulatory issues in commercial refrigeration. Over the past ten years, Groff has represented the industry at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency.
Episode summary
Host John Sheff, Danfoss’ Director of Public Affairs, has Dean Groff, Danfoss Food Retail Services Contractor Manager, back to discuss flammable refrigerants, their regulations, and how to safely handle them.
Main points
- The Montreal Protocol, while focused on ozone-depleting substances, also banned flammable refrigerants out of safety concerns. The more recent Kilgali accords brought flammable refrigerants back, because they typically have such low GWP ratings.
- While we’re starting to see flammable refrigerants being used in the US, they’re much more established throughout the rest of the world, most notably in Europe.
- UL and ASHRAE standards are undergoing reviews to safely increase A2L and A3 refrigerants, including leak detection and control.
- Some states, such as California, are working to approve flammable refrigerants that are currently banned at a federal level, which is causing some legal issues.
- To help facilitate change, a working group forum, CANEMA Working Group 12 —including OEMs, end users, and fire marshals—is pushing to raise the amount of allowed flammable refrigerants.
- AHRI and ACCA offer flammable refrigerant training, to allow for safe handling of A2 and A3 refrigerants.
Subscribe to the Envisioneering Exchange podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.
Links
Listen to the full podcast on Soundcloud here
UL whitepaper on flammable refrigerants
ASHRAE standards and guidelines
AHRI: The Changing World of Refrigerants
For more information and additional episodes of the Envisioneering Exchange podcast, visit https://www.danfoss.com/en-us/about-danfoss/insights-for-tomorrow/envisioneering-exchange/
