Impact on Energy Consumption and Environmental Degradation

To reduce the environmental impact by the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration industry ¿ both commercial and domestic ¿ there is an urgent need to look for solutions that are both ozone friendly and CO2 friendly (greenhouse effect friendly). Eradicating the damage to the environment has encouraged the industrial and commercial refrigeration industry to investigate refrigerant alternatives that reduce the environmental impact although a good transition to them will also depend on the training that technicians acquire, as well as the understanding of the current and future benefits for the companies and the end users. In this thesis, the improvement of energy consumption and environmental degradation prevention is attained by switching the refrigerant used from R134a (current) to R290 (Propane) which is a natural refrigerant and Hydro Carbon Blend which is a mixture of refrigerants but is safer and environmentally friendlier.