Dynamic Retrofit: change refrigerant knowing how the installation will run
Replacing a refrigerant is not swapping a cylinder. Capacity, mass flow, pressures, discharge temperature, charge and oil return all change. Systcold JDC calculates it as a complete system, from the cold room to the condensing unit, with real manufacturer data and refrigeration-cycle thermodynamics.
Open Retrofit (free sign-up) →Free catalogue →Four linked templates, one single data entry
1. Heat load calculation. Chill and freezer rooms: transmission, product, infiltration, people, lighting and service. Each room is classified by its suction line (HT +5 °C, MT −10 °C, LT −30 °C) and gets its project code, so the loads of each suction line add up without entering data twice.
2. Installation study. Evaporator ΔT according to product humidity, design evaporating temperature, low-GWP refrigerant by priority (R454C, R455A, R449A…) and equilibrium condensing temperature. It selects the condensing unit with a +5 to +30 % margin at the real ambient temperature of the site, at 50 or 60 Hz, and the evaporators and expansion valve checked at the operating point. The result is the real operating point: the evaporating temperature and capacity at which the installation will run, not the catalogue ones.
3. Refrigerant lines. One condensing unit feeds a liquid line that distributes the load to up to 12 nodes, with 6 services per node, grouped into a maximum of 3 suction lines (HT, MT and LT). Suction and liquid line diameters with pressure drop and oil-return velocity, in metric or imperial units.
4. Retrofit: refrigerant change and rebalancing. Starting from the existing installation (compressors, services, condensing temperature, subcooling, superheat, altitude and current charge), it calculates with the new refrigerant:
- capacity and COP under the same conditions;
- mass flow, pressures, compression ratio and discharge temperature;
- pressure drop and oil return in the existing lines;
- system refrigerant charge;
- energy use, savings and payback, with your operating hours and your kWh price.
Verifiable engineering
- Refrigeration cycle calculated with CoolProp and the saturation tables of each refrigerant.
- Compressors with AHRI 540 polynomials and manufacturer-published curves.
- Evaporators at EN 328 standard conditions (SC1, SC2, SC3).
- More than 15,500 condensing units, 6,800 compressors, 5,300 evaporators and 3,200 expansion valves from real manufacturers.
- Capacity correction for ambient temperature with a recognised thermodynamic procedure, never an optimistic extrapolation.
Technical Catalogue: 100 % free, 365 days a year
No registration and no time limit, the information installers check every day:
- Refrigerants: pressure-temperature (P-T) tables for each gas, to check working pressures, superheat and subcooling on site.
- F-Gas regulation: GWP of each refrigerant, current restrictions and low-GWP substitutes, to decide the retrofit with the regulation at hand.
- Compressors and oils: compressor type, approved refrigerants and the right oil for each one.
From the catalogue you go straight to Retrofit: choose the substitute gas and calculate how your installation will run with it.
Open the free catalogue →Start free
56 hours at no cost, no card required: heat load, study and refrigerant lines can be used without registering for the first 20 hours; free registration adds 36 more hours and opens Retrofit. After that, a subscription keeps the templates available.
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