Transitioning to\na Lower Global Warming Refrigerant,\na Performance Study of R‑513A and HFC-134a in Commercial Chillers

The performance of R-513A and HFC-134a refrigerants is\ncompared\nin two identical chillers operating at the University of Kansas. R-513A\nis a more environmentally friendly refrigerant due to its lower global\nwarming potential that can be used as a retrofit replacement for HFC-134a\nin chillers. This study investigates the performance comparison of\ntransitioning from HFC-134a to R-513A. The chillers have been in operation\nfor two years, and cooling capacity, coefficient of performance, and\nother operating parameters are compared under similar cooling conditions.\nCooling capacities ranged from 100 to 500 kW for both chillers. Overall,\nthe energy consumption and coefficient of performance were statistically\nthe same when operating at the same cooling loads.