Refrigerant flammability classification review

The ARC represents licence holders on a number of committees and groups who look at ways to improve safety, good practice, ease of use and cost efficiencies for technicians.

We are currently assisting the Australian Standards refrigerant flammability classification review and have provided an outline of its progress below.

The current classifications
The current AS/NZS 1667.1: 1988 Refrigeration systems Part 1: Refrigerant Classification, covers the refrigerant classification according to its physical properties. Table 2.1 below only lists five groups, that is – A1, A2, A3, B1 and B2.



The current AS/NZS 1677.2:1998 Refrigerating systems – Safety requirements for fixed applications, details the minimum safety requirements for fixed applications of all refrigeration systems.

Review
Both of these standards were released in 1998 and are now being revised. The proposal is to use the latest equivalent International Standards (ISO) and make the appropriate minor changes to suit Australian and New Zealand regulations. The applicable ISO standards are as follows:

  • ISO 817:2014 Refrigerants – Designation and safety classification
  • ISO 5149:2014: Refrigerating systems and heat pumps – Safety and environmental requirements is published in 4 parts as follows:
  • ISO 5149-1:2014 Refrigerating systems and heat pumps – Safety and environmental requirements – Part 1: Definitions, classification and selection criteria
  • ISO 5149-2:2014 Refrigerating systems and heat pumps – Safety and environmental requirements – Part 2: Design, construction, testing, marking and documentation
  • ISO 5149-3:2014 Refrigerating systems and heat pumps – Safety and environmental requirements – Part 3: Installation site
  • ISO 5149-4:2014 Refrigerating systems and heat pumps – Safety and environmental requirements – Part 4: Operation, maintenance, repair and recovery

Proposed changes
ISO 817 will be used to replace Part 1 of AS/NZS1677 and ISO 5149 will be used to replace part 2 of AS/NZS1677. ISO 817 has eight separate safety classifications (A1, A2L, A2, A3, B1, B2L, B2 and B3) for refrigerants as per Table 2.2 below, instead of the five currently listed in Table 2.1.



A2L group refrigerants include R1234yf. B2L group refrigerants include R717 (Ammonia). These may or may not be adopted in the AS/NZS versions after the second round of public consultations on the drafts which closed on 4 May 2016. Standards Australia is expected to publish the Australian/New Zealand version of these documents later this year.

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