Refrigerants in HVAC quotations: GWP, safety class and market rules

Read the refrigerant line before the price: it decides where the unit can be sold, installed and serviced.

The refrigerant named on a quotation is not a detail to check after the price. It fixes the compressor and pressure design, the safety rules for the plant room, the markets where the equipment may be placed and the parts and gas a service contractor will need for twenty years. Two offers with the same cooling capacity can therefore be very different purchases.

This page explains the two codes buyers meet most often, the safety group and the global warming potential, and the market rules that turn them into yes-or-no questions.

Read the safety group first

ASHRAE Standard 34 gives each refrigerant a safety group of two or three characters. The letter is toxicity: A is lower toxicity, B is higher toxicity. The number is flammability: 1 shows no flame propagation in the test, 2L is mildly flammable with a low burning velocity, 2 is flammable and 3 is highly flammable. The ASHRAE/UNEP fact sheet and AHRI's A2L reference material use this scheme.

The refrigerants most often seen on Chinese HVAC catalogues fall into these groups:

The safety group changes the installation rather than the brochure. A2L and A3 refrigerants bring charge limits that depend on room size, leak detection or ventilation in some layouts, and service tools approved for flammable gas. An A1 unit and an A2L unit with identical capacity can need different plant-room work, so ask which installation standard the supplier designed to and what it assumes about the room.

Treat GWP as a market filter

Global warming potential compares the climate effect of a refrigerant with carbon dioxide over 100 years. EU fluorinated-gas legislation uses R-410A at 2,088 and R-32 at 675; hydrocarbons and CO2 sit in single digits. Different reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change give slightly different numbers, so a datasheet should state which basis it uses.

In the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2024/573 replaced the 2014 F-gas regulation. Its Annex IV bans placing certain new equipment on the market by date and GWP threshold. Self-contained air conditioners and heat pumps up to 12 kW with a GWP of 150 or more are banned from 1 January 2027, with split systems and larger units following on separate dates. The European Parliament summary also records later complete phase-outs for small monobloc and split systems. Read the annex line for your exact product type rather than a vendor summary, because summaries disagree on the split-system dates.

In the United States, EPA's Technology Transitions program restricts HFCs by sector and installation or manufacture date. Many comfort-cooling uses, including chillers, moved to a 700 GWP limit for new manufacture or import from 2025, while process refrigeration and data-centre cooling received later dates, and EPA has since adjusted some installation rules. Check EPA's sector table on the day you order.

How the choice appears in real equipment

Refrigerant choice shows up differently in each product family on this site. The Cling CEZDD bus heat pumps use R-744 (CO2), which runs at far higher pressures than R-410A, so the vehicle pipework, service ports and winter capacity have to be read together. ZEL's hermetic compressors include R-600a constructions, so read the Zeta compressor constructions and the variable-speed R600a packages with the A3 charge limits of the appliance in mind.

For chillers, the refrigerant usually travels with the compressor type. The Dunham-Bush DCLCDZ page discusses HFO operation with refrigerant-lubricated ceramic bearings, a design that only makes sense with a specific refrigerant and oil strategy. Low-temperature screw packages such as the Sino King water-cooled low-temperature family and the Dunham-Bush LSCP open-screw package depend on the refrigerant for their oil management and lowest evaporating temperature. Our guide to compressor types sets out those pairings.

Condensing units and condensers are where buyers are most likely to be offered several gases for one cabinet. The CFMZ MINI condensing units, the Xiangneng FNV air-cooled condensers and the Yongsheng marine condensing family should each be quoted with the refrigerant fixed, because coil circuiting, pressure rating and fan selection all follow from it.

Do not confuse the refrigerant with a secondary fluid. A glycol loop, a coolant such as the Envicool SoluKing fluid, or the water in a chiller circuit is not covered by the refrigerant rules, but it has its own compatibility and freeze questions.

Questions to put in the enquiry

Ask the supplier to state the refrigerant, its ASHRAE safety group and the GWP value with its basis. Ask for the factory charge in kilograms and in tonnes CO2 equivalent, which drives EU leak-check and labelling duties.

Ask which market rule the offer was checked against and on what date, for example EU Annex IV for your product category or the EPA subsector for your application. Ask whether the same model is available on a lower-GWP refrigerant and what changes: capacity, efficiency, pressure rating and price.

For A2L and A3 refrigerants, ask what the design assumes about room volume, ventilation and leak detection, and which parts are supplied. For any refrigerant, ask how replacement gas will be obtained in your country over the equipment's life.

For heat pumps, compare capacity at the design temperature with the refrigerant fixed; our heat pump quotation guide explains why. For chillers, compare part-load figures on the same refrigerant and rating basis, as described in our chiller quotation guide.

Common questions

Is an A1 refrigerant always the safer purchase? Not automatically. A1 removes flammability concerns, but many A1 HFCs have a high GWP and may already be restricted for new equipment in your market.

Can a unit designed for R-410A be filled with R-32? Not without the manufacturer's approval. Pressures, oil, expansion devices and safety measures differ, and an unapproved change can void approvals.

Does a low-GWP refrigerant mean lower efficiency? Not necessarily. Efficiency depends on the whole design, so compare rated figures under the same conditions rather than assuming.

Scope of this guide

This page is a reading guide, not legal advice. Market rules change and differ by product category, so confirm the rule that applies to your installation date and country before ordering.

By HVACDeck Editorial · Updated 2026-11-04