Household refrigerators: HFO performance as drop-in replacement for R-134a

During the IIR co-sponsored International Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Conference at Purdue in 2012, K.M Karber et al. from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States, presented* the results of a performance test on R1234yf and R1234ze, used as drop-in refrigerants to replace R134a in domestic refrigerators.
During the IIR co-sponsored International Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Conference at Purdue in 2012, K.M Karber et al. from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States, presented* the results of a performance test on R1234yf and R1234ze, used as drop-in refrigerants to replace R134a in domestic refrigerators with no performance-enhancing modifications to the refrigerators.
The two refrigerators used were representative of baseline and advanced technology.

In Refrigerators 1 and 2, R1234yf had 2.7% and 1.3% higher energy consumption than R134a, indicating that it is a suitable drop-in replacement.

In Refrigerators 1 and 2, R1234ze had 16% and 5.4% lower energy consumption than R134a. This lower capacity would need to be addressed if this refrigerant is used as a replacement. Thus, R1234ze might not be suitable for drop-in replacement.

*Experimental performance of R-1234yf and R-1234ze as drop-in replacements for R-134a in domestic refrigerators, Kyle M. Karber et al.

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