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EFFECT OF LUBRICANT CONTAMINATION ON THE PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY OF HEAT PUMPS CHARGED WITH R-407C.
Citation:
Fitzhenry, S. A., W. V. Payne, AND D. L. O'Neal. EFFECT OF LUBRICANT CONTAMINATION ON THE PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY OF HEAT PUMPS CHARGED WITH R-407C. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-98/015 (NTIS PB98-127079), 1998.
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
The report gives results of the development of new data that can be used to determine the effect of mineral oil contamination on the reliability of a heat pump system operating with a new hydrofluorocarbon mixture and polyol ester lubricant, to assess any performance degradation due to mineral oil contamination in retrofit applications, and to examine the impact of water contamination on the retrofit system. As the result of the premature failure of one of the units, the long term reliability of contaminated systems was not determined. Future investigation should reexamine this issue. The effects on performance of various levels of mineral oil contamination were not significant, so further investigation at specific conditions of interest may be justified. The effects of water contamination could be more significant. The increase in total acid number could have potentially led to increased amounts of trace metals in the system as the acid attacked system components. A longer term study would be necessary to determine if there were any long term effects of water contamination that did not appear during the 15-week trial.