Ben Bartle-Ross of Mitsubishi Electric looks at what R32 systems mean for air conditioning installers.
 
R32 systems are now available in the UK and, if the experience we’ve had with our MSZ-LN units is anything to go by, then they will become common very quickly – especially with businesses who want the stylish new designs, or corporations that want to demonstrate their adoption of aircon with a lower GWP.

Ben Bartle-Ross, a trainer at Mitsubishi Electric, asks if we are being smart enough with some of the latest technology available.

In my last column, I talked about the various Apps that manufacturers, such as Mitsubishi Electric, are developing for engineers when they are out on the job. These can help with things like fault codes, pipe runs, wiring details, etc and are designed to help you get the information you need, when you need it.

We will see a new range of manifolds available in 2016 to keep up with the ever increasing refrigerant ranges. One of the biggest on everyone’s lips will be is what changes will be happening to manifolds when the mildly flammable R32 gas is common place.

For the REFCO range from JAVAC our manifolds will see changes to the scales to suit R32 and R410a. All manifolds will be dual scale with R32 and R410a on the HP and LP gauges. The body of the manifold itself will be available with and without a sight glass and as always we will have this available in two valve and 4 valve in a case with hoses.

All R32 A/C equipment will have fittings of 5/16th male flare. This is the current standard for R410a systems. This been the case means that all R32 manifolds will have hoses with 5/16th connections on one end which will fit all systems for R32 and R410a. The 3 hoses will consist of a Blue Red and Yellow hose.

The yellow hose will also remain the same and have ¼ x ¼ connections to fit bottles, vacuum pumps and recovery units.