Great ways to improve energy efficiency in your home or business

Forever benching marking and innovating Florance Electrical are always looking for ways to help you reduce energy costs in your home or business. Power bills will continue to increase consistently in the coming years due to rising demand and investment into green energy by retailers. We have always seen massive price hikes over the last three years, Florance Electrical Darwin are here to help!

Hydrocarbon natural refrigerants are the future of the air conditioning and HVAC industry. Engas is an Australian company and industry leader in hydrocarbon refrigerants for use in air conditioning systems.

Engas is manufactured by blending natural gases at different levels to create an efficient and safe refrigerant to use that is a fantastic alternative to chemical refrigerants which are commonly used in air conditioning systems.

Engas is much, much safer for the environment than chemical refrigerants and due to rising awareness and concern with global warming they must be looked at seriously. The benefit of using these refrigerants besides the environment factor is that they are more 50% more efficient conductors of heat that fluorocarbons (synthetic refrigerants).

This means that hydrocarbons operate better in hot and humid conditions than synthetic refrigerants and also perform more work (cooling or heating). As they are more efficient there is an added bonus that they use less power than synthetic refrigerants to achieve a result (cooling or heating an area).

Reduce energy costs wtih hydrocarbon refrigerants

Typically when retrofitting hydrocarbons (fluorocarbons) to existing systems we have seen energy reductions of up to 45%. As well as this there is the efficiency increase of the system as it will be performing more work (cooling or heating) at this reduced energy consumption or amperage decrease.

This means that we would see an entire system efficiency increase that exceeds 45% when taking into account the added performance of the retrofitted system with hydrocarbons.

Before conversion (synthetic refrigerant R32)

In the above video we are retrofitting a brand new Panasonic split system air conditioner with hydrocarbons. This system is currently operating on the synthetic refrigerant HFC R32. It is a 2.5KW split system drawing 1.7A with the remote control and system set to cooling on 16ºC and a high fan speed.

After conversion (fluorocarbon refrigerant M20)

After completing the conversion to HF Engas M20 the 2.5KW split system is now drawing .69A with the controller/indoor unit set to 16ºC and a high fan speed.

This decrease in running Amps equates to a 59.40% power saving. The 12-month running cost of the unit before conversion at 66 hours per week, 48 weeks a year is $468.22.

• The 12-month running cost of the unit after conversion at 66 hours per week, 48 weeks a year is $257.52.
• 12-month savings from conversion to natural refrigerant M60 is $210.70.
• 18-month running cost of the unit before conversion at 66 hours per week, 48 weeks a year is $702.34.
• 18-month running cost of the unit after conversion at 66 hours per week, 48 weeks a year is $386.29
• 18-month savings from conversion to natural refrigerant M60 is $316.05.
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Based on the below running conditions:

• Hours per week x 66
• Weeks per year x 48
• Electrical cost KW $0.27
• Voltage 230V
• FLA 85% [Percentage on how long the compressor will be running at full potential, allowances for ramp up and down]
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Did we mention that hydrocarbons will not affect your manufacturers warranty? Or that the system will be running at a lower operating pressure meaning that there is less strain on the system and less chance that your system will develop a leak?

Comment below or contact us to tell us about your energy costs and existing air conditioners.