This paper is intended to provide policy makers, standard authorities and private sector representatives with an overview and orientation on international safety standards for RACHP systems, in particular addressing developing countries that endeavour to widen the use of environmentally friendly refrigerants in a safe way. The document identifies what is currently feasible with existing safety standard requirements, and what possibilities exist to ease the barriers and improve safety standards for the future.
This publication is an update of the 2018 version, to reflect the revision of some of the standards. In particular, IEC 60335-2-89 for commercial refrigeration appliances has been revised to increase the maximum refrigerant charge from 150 g to about 500 g of hydrocarbon. Although the upper refrigerant charge limit in IEC 60335-2-40 remains the same, the allowable charge (per unit area of room size) has been increased considerably, thereby permitting much more hydrocarbon refrigerant to satisfy the required cooling capacity.