R32-based systems starting to hit shelves

UK –  The air conditioning and refrigeration supplier, Climate Center announced last week that it now stocks R32-based air conditioning systems across all of its branches, making it the first supplier to do so in the UK.

As previously noted, ​R32 refrigerant has a much lower global warming potential (GWP) of 675 compared to the widely-used R410A, which has a GWP of 2088. Since the European F-Gas regulations will ban refrigerants in splt air conditioning systems with a GWP over 750, as of 2025, interest in and customer demand for R32 is growing and Climate Center has decided to respond by stocking Daikin and Toshiba R32 systems in all of its 45 branches in the UK.
In addition to the lower GWP, another added advantage of R32 is that air conditioning systems will need 30% less refrigerant charge than R410A. As a consequence, air conditioning systems should become smaller in the future, since with less refrigerant charge, heat exchangers and other parts can be made smaller.

At the current time, tools and equipment to work with R32 are increasingly available, however there have been few R32 systems on the market, up until now.