On April 20, Honeywell Japan announced that its low- GWP refrigerant R466A (trade name: Solstice N41) was judged to be an inert gas by the Evaluation Committee for New Refrigerants of Japan Society of Refrigerating and Air- conditioning Engineers.

R466A is a non-flammable refrigerant to replace R410A applicable to air-conditioning system (VRF) of stationary type. The company is proud to say it is the first non-combustible refrigerant for the application to substitute R410A.

The refrigerant is characteristic in its GWP of 733 which is 65% lower than that of R410A with nearly the same refrigerating power and energy efficiency. It is non-combustible (Class A1) and non-toxic using a mixture of three types of gases of R32, R125 and CF31.

Honeywell has already shipped samples at more than 15 major manufacturers of air conditioner including Japanese ones. Examinations have been made for 100 thousand cumulative hours in business use (VRF and roof-top air-conditioning) and household use (American package air-conditioning). As for the Japanese market, it seems that their promotion activities will be accelerated from now on placing a core target on VRF.