Abstract
As global environment problem has become an important issue, ammonia refrigerant has been watched with keen interest because it does not cause destruction of the ozone layer and global warming. We have developed an air-source and water-source heat pump units using ammonia refrigerant with ice thermal storage tank from perspective for popularizing systems which use natural energy and natural working fluids. To further popularizing of this system, we have to verify its reliability and safety because ammonia refrigerant is prescribed for toxic and combustible gas in ammonia gas regulations in Japan such as Fire Code, High Pressure Gas Control Code and Industrial Safety and Health Code. In this report, aiming to rationalize of its design, operation and maintenance, we carried out practical study to verify its performance both in development phase and aging change, and results of the field test for verification of its performance are presented. It was found that the heat pump unit using ammonia refrigerant can be handled as well as the heat pump unit using fluorocarbon refrigerant such as HFC. Thus the reliability and safety of this heat pump unit using ammonia refrigerant was verified.
