Temprite Supports Efforts to Advance Natural Refrigerants by Joining NASRC

West Chicago, Illinois — Temprite, which manufactures commercial refrigeration components and offers products for all refrigerants, especially all natural refrigerants, has joined the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC) at the silver level. The NASRC is an action-oriented 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to creating a climate-friendly future for refrigeration through natural refrigerants.

The demand for natural refrigerants is on the rise as supermarkets face increasing legislative pressures to reduce their overall carbon footprint through energy efficiency and climate-friendly refrigerants.

Natural refrigerants, including ammonia, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons, have zero or near-zero global warming potential (GWP), making them a future-proof solution for increasing refrigerant regulations. The transition to natural refrigerants in supermarkets has been slow, however, because of barriers like high up-front costs, a lack of data around performance and other ongoing costs, and a shortage of trained service and maintenance technicians.

NASRC, in partnership with its 130-plus stakeholders from across the supermarket industry, is taking action to remove those barriers and make natural refrigerants a strong business choice for supermarkets. Temprite now joins their effort to help supermarkets transition to climate-friendly natural refrigerants.

“We chose to join the NASRC because we want to get the message out about how Temprite’s products are good for the environment in multiple ways, and they help save money by lowering electricity consumption and increasing refrigeration system capacity.  NASRC is an ideal platform for accomplishing those objectives,” said Jim Nonnie, Temprite’s President.

Temprite was founded in 1924 and now supplies energy-efficient coalescent and conventional oil separators, oil reservoirs, drier housings, liquid receivers, suction accumulators, and refrigerant oil management products. The company first introduced its components for CO2 transcritical refrigeration systems in 2006 and has been expanding its natural refrigeration solutions ever since.

“We provide supermarket energy managers and technicians with products, technical data, and practical equations they can use to quantify their energy and financial savings resulting from using Temprite’s products in natural refrigerants systems,” Nonnie continued.

“We’re pleased to welcome Temprite into our growing network,” said Morgan Smith, NASRC manager of programs & operations. “They’ve demonstrated a longstanding commitment to advancing energy efficient natural refrigerant solutions, and we look forward to leveraging their expertise to further accelerate our progress.”

In addition to Temprite, NASRC’s member network represents more than 24,000 US supermarket locations and stakeholders from throughout the commercial refrigeration industry, including service contractors, manufacturers and suppliers, consultants, engineering firms, trade associations, distributors, and nonprofits.

More information about Temprite can be found here: www.temprite.com.

Natural Refrigerants Highlighted as Key Climate Solution at TEDxReImagineScience Event

North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council Executive Director’s Talk Available for Viewing

PALO ALTO, Calif., January 7, 2020 – North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC), a 501(c)(3) environmental nonprofit working in partnership with the grocery industry to advance climate-friendly natural refrigerants, announced that its executive director, Danielle Wright, was featured at a TEDxReImagineScience event along with three other top experts speaking on key environmental and climate topics.

TEDxReImagineScience is one of more than 600 TEDx Countdown events that took place around the world this fall as part of a global movement to find ways to shift, more rapidly, to a world with net zero greenhouse emissions and tackle the climate crisis.

Wright’s talk titled ‘Unpacking the #1 Global Warming Solution,’ is now available for viewing on the TED website. Nine months pregnant and speaking within days of her due date, Wright drove home a powerful message of hope and collective action on an important, but little-known climate solution – natural refrigerants. “I'm terrified of climate change. I’m worried about the world we’re leaving to our kids. But I’m also hopeful there’s something you and I can do about it,” said Wright.

Wright explained that traditional Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants are super-polluting greenhouse gases with thousands of times more impact on the climate than carbon dioxide. Specifically, her talk highlighted the importance of helping the grocery sector transition away from HFCs, citing that annual HFC emissions from grocery refrigeration leaks are roughly equal to the annual emissions from powering all of the homes in the state of California.

Natural refrigerants are the climate-friendly alternative that can help prevent up to 0.5°C of warming by the end of the century and avoid the catastrophic tipping point of 1.5°C. But according to Wright, a lack of effective policy has stalled wide-scale adoption and made it difficult for grocery stores to make the transition.

“If everyone did it, there’d be economies of scale to bring down costs, more technicians trained to do it, new technologies to make it easier,” said Wright. “This is exactly what effective policy does.” 

Wright concluded her talk by calling on listeners to help spread the word to their networks. “The first step is awareness,” she said, highlighting the important role education can play in driving resources and policies needed to support the transition to natural refrigerants.

“Natural refrigerants give me hope because they have the power to make the number one global climate solution a reality,” said Wright. “And I believe that individual awareness gives us the collective power to make change happen; to leave a better world for our children.”

Following the event, the recent COVID-19 relief package included a bill to phase down HFCs consistent with the international Kigali Amendment, which the US has not ratified. The bill is an important step towards making natural refrigerants a more feasible option for grocers and making this leading climate solution a reality.

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About North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council
The North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC) is a 501(c)(3) environmental nonprofit working in partnership with the grocery refrigeration industry to advance climate-friendly natural refrigerants and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by traditional refrigerants. The organization works with stakeholders from across the grocery refrigeration industry, including over 24,000 grocery locations, to eliminate the barriers preventing the adoption of natural refrigerants. For more information, please visit www.nasrc.org.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made available, free, on TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; the TED Translators Program, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a "wish," or idea, to create change in the world; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED or Instagram at https://instagram.com/ted.

NASRC's Top 10 Accomplishments In 2020

2020 has had its challenges, but thanks to tremendous participation and support from our members, NASRC made more progress towards our mission to eliminate the barriers to natural refrigerants than ever before.

Check out our top 10 collective accomplishments in 2020!

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1. Aggregated Incentives Program (AIP) Pilot

Launched Aggregated Incentives Program (AIP) to coordinate multiple sources of funding support for natural refrigerant projects in food retail applications through a streamlined application process.

2. Low-GWP & Energy Efficiency Expo

Convened 200+ supermarket refrigeration, energy management, and regulatory stakeholders for a 2-day event (pre-COVID) to accelerate progress towards a low-GWP and energy efficient future for supermarkets.

3. California HFC Regulations for Stationary Refrigeration

Facilitated the development of the alternate HFC regulatory proposal for stationary refrigeration in California with a retailer group representing the majority of supermarket locations in the state.

4. Carbon Financing Pilot

Developed a Carbon Financing Pilot to create a market for the supply & demand of refrigerant carbon-offset credits and ultimately leverage revenue from the sale of credits to offset the upfront costs of natural refrigerant projects.

5. CO2 Curriculum Development for Schools

Kicked off the development of a CO2 curriculum for trade schools & community colleges with ESCO Group, industry stakeholders, and HVACR schools to help build a future workforce that is well-versed in natural refrigerants.

6. Natural Refrigerant Technology Series & Library

Hosted an eight-week webinar series that included nineteen webinars featuring the latest natural refrigerant technologies. Developed our Natural Refrigerant Technology Library to host recordings on-demand at no cost.

7. Natural Refrigerant Contractor Directory

Created a downloadable Contractor Directory to help food retailers find installation & service contractors trained in natural refrigerants, which can be filtered by refrigerant type and geographic location.

8. Low-GWP Research Studies

Initiated field studies and pilot projects on advanced refrigeration technologies to compile data around energy performance and other ongoing costs of natural and low-GWP refrigerant solutions.

9. New NASRC Resources

Introduced new NASRC resources, including our Member Directory to highlight our members and the services they offer, our Resource Library to equip our network to learned about & advance natural refrigerants, and our Member Resource Library.

10. Education & Awareness

Increased awareness of natural refrigerants as a leading climate solution to expand support for the transition. Leveraged new educational platforms, such as the How To Save A Planet podcast and the TEDxReImagineScience event.

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Thank you to our members who are the driving force behind all of these achievements!
We look forward to building on the momentum we've created together in 2021.

First-of-its-kind Study Compares Costs of Natural & Low-GWP Refrigerant Systems

As food retailers in the US face growing refrigerant regulations, the need for tools and resources that provide clarity on the cost of natural and low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant technologies is becoming increasingly apparent. A new study comparing the upfront and ongoing costs of various natural and low-GWP refrigerant systems has provided a first-of-its-kind resource that could help build a pathway towards that clarity for retailers.

Authored by DC Engineering - an engineering design firm based in Meridian, Idaho – the study was commissioned by a national chain grocer and aimed to equip the grocer to make informed system selection decisions. The grocer chose to remain anonymous but agreed to make the study results public.

“This study is a great example of the kind of transparent and comprehensive cost comparison food retailers are looking for,” said Danielle Wright, executive director of NASRC. “As regulatory pressures increase, retailers need more tools like this to effectively compare their options.”

“With the ever-changing tapestry of refrigerant compliance issues, we have found end-users need clear, fact-based guidance on the most suitable system for their long-term operational success,” said Glenn Barrett, engineering manager at DC Engineering. “Both the first cost and lifecycle costs of different system designs are heavily impacted by the system options and features utilized. Providing a baseline of the client’s key parameters, and then adhering to those parameters, is imperative to achieving a meaningful comparison.”

The study compared both the upfront costs of installation and ongoing cost of energy for four different refrigeration system designs serving a 40,000 square foot market with a 900 MBH load. The baseline design was a 3-rack system using R-448A, which was compared to three other system designs:

• A CO2 transcritical system utilizing a single rack and an adiabatic gas cooler

• A micro-distributed system using R-448A and utilizing an adiabatic fluid cooler and a hydronic loop for heat rejection

• A micro-macro-distributed system using R-290 for standardized cases and CO2 for specialty cases and utilizing an adiabatic fluid cooler and a hydronic loop for heat rejection

To obtain competitive installation pricing, the four system designs were bid across five regions using multiple contractors and OEMs. As a result, over 50 competitive bids were reviewed to analyze first costs. The bids were averaged to compare the variation of the case, equipment, and installation costs across each of the four system designs. Overall, the CO2 transcritical design resulted in the lowest first cost, even when compared to the baseline HFC system.

“It’s important to remember that this study reflects one retailer’s experience and is not necessarily representative of other retailers,” said Wright. “We’ve heard from a number of our retailer members that they are still experiencing significant cost premiums for CO2 transcritical systems.”

Energy performance was also modeled for each of the four system designs using a combination of Pack Calculation Pro, Excel, and other tools. Weather data was incorporated from each of the five regions and all system loads were kept constant for the purpose of comparison. The results reflected energy penalties in every region for all alternative system types, ranging from 9% to 122% above the HFC baseline system.

“It was very interesting to see how energy use differed between the various real world, commercially available, designs,” said Barrett. “It was particularly interesting – and encouraging  –  to see how the thermodynamic efficiency advantages of natural refrigerant solutions played out when compared to a very efficient HFC, multiple suction group, rack design using industry best practices. The study substantiated our view that natural refrigerant designs are both viable and varied to meet most any facility conditions but can indeed be improved to maximize energy efficiency.”

This study is an important first step towards providing retailers the tools they need to effectively compare their options. Looking ahead, NASRC plans to build on this study to incorporate additional system types and baseline assumptions, as well as energy performance data from the field. 

“Our hope is that this study will serve as an important blueprint that can be expanded to include other system designs and field data,” said Wright. “NASRC’s goal is to help coordinate that expansion to drive more clarity for retailers.”

Click here to read the full report.

R290 Charge Limit Increase - What's Next?

Last year, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 60336-2-89 standard was updated to increase the charge limit for A3 refrigerants - including R-290 (Propane) and R-600a (Isobutane) - to 500g at the international level. Since then, a CANENA technical harmonization committee has been working to adapt the IEC standard in the US, where the charge limit is still 150g.

NASRC recently co-hosted a member Q&A session on the pending charge limit increase in the US with Charlie Hon, who currently serves as the chairman for the CANENA committee. Here’s a few updates on the status and next steps to increase the R290 charge limit in the US:

• CANENA - The CANENA committee has drafted an update to the UL 60335-2-89 standard, which would increase the charge limit for A3 refrigerants to 300g for self-contained systems with doors or drawers and 500g for other self-contained systems (e.g., open cases) in the US.

• UL - The draft update has been submitted to UL, and in the next few months it will be sent out for a public comment period and the UL committee will vote to approve it. The standard is expected to be approved by Q1 2021. 

In addition to the UL standard update, the following steps must be completed before the larger A3 charge sizes are allowable:

• EPA SNAP - EPA SNAP must accept the larger charge sizes before they can be sold. The CANENA committee will submit an application to EPA SNAP as soon as the updated UL standard is approved.

• ASHRAE 15 - The ASHRAE 15 standard must be revised to include the larger charge sizes. This effort is being done in coordination with the CANENA committee.

• Building Codes - National Building and Fire Codes will need to be modified. The next code cycle takes place in 2022.

All of these steps are expected to be completed by 2022 at the earliest, at which point the higher A3 charge sizes would be approved for use.

So what does all of this mean? Basically, a future with higher R290 charge sizes in self-contained equipment is on the horizon, but there is still work to be done.