Panasonic's New Pump Down System Detects Refrigerant Leaks Early

25/07/2014

Panasonic has developed an innovative solution to detect refrigerant leaks in VRF systems, offering complete assurance and protection for end users, building occupants and the environment.

Panasonic’s innovative Pump Down System is ideal for hotels, offices and public buildings where safety for occupants and the building owners is of utmost importance.

The system monitors refrigerant leakage continually and provides a warning before refrigerant leaks, preventing major refrigerant loss and potential damage the system’s efficiency.

As well as ensuring safe and reliable operation, Panasonic’s Pump Down System contributes to a building qualifying for additional BREEAM points and achieves compliance with the current EN378 2008 standard, covering applications where refrigeration concentration levels exceed practical safety limits of 0,44 kg/m³.

“Government regulations surrounding refrigerant gas are, quite rightly, incredibly demanding and is a key reason why reliable leak detection systems are required,” explains Marc Diaz, UK Country Manager of Panasonic Heating and Cooling. “However, with refrigerant prices continuing to increase, cost implications of a leak can be extremely high. For these reasons, we are seeing even more demand for these early detection and preventive systems. We have developed the new Pump Down System to comply with all relevant legislation, and thanks to two different connection methods, it is suitable for a variety of applications and is extremely cost effective.”

The system can be connected in two ways, either with a leak sensor or an innovative algorithm.

Connecting the system with a leak detector ensures the system is suitable for installation in small rooms. Thanks to Panasonic ECOi exclusive software, sensors communicate with the Pump Down System directly through its P-Link connection, eliminating the need for additional and potentially costly communication networks. It is a very cost effective solution and quite straight forward to install. The leak detector is connected through PAW-EXCT connector directly to the indoor unit and the pump down system is directly connected to the main outdoor unit. The system will activate when a leak is detected in the monitored rooms and any leaked refrigerant will be collected immediately within the outdoor units, or in an optional receiver tank for bigger systems.

Panasonic has developed an innovative new algorithm to determine refrigerant leakage, enabling the system to be connected without sensors. It is able to detect leakage of R410A based on three conditions: high pressure, low pressure and discharge temperature.

Functions of the Pump Down System:
• Detect the leakage
• Activate pump down process
• Collect the gas in the tank
• Close the valves to isolate the gas