| Property | Refrigerant A | Refrigerant B | Better |
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How to Use the Refrigerant Comparison Calculator
Pick Refrigerant A and Refrigerant B from the 12 options. They must be different.
Choose a preset or enter the evaporating and condensing temperatures in °C. Both are dew-point temperatures.
Press Compare Refrigerants to see GWP, safety class, pressures, glide, discharge temperature, capacity and COP side by side.
Use the Better column and the summary, then check the equipment listing and the Canadian regulations before you specify a refrigerant.
How to compare refrigerants for a Canadian project
A refrigerant is chosen on four things: how much it warms the climate if it leaks, how hazardous it is, how it behaves at the temperatures of the job, and whether the equipment is listed for it. This calculator puts two refrigerants side by side on all four, at the evaporating and condensing temperatures you enter.
What the calculator models
For each refrigerant the tool runs an ideal vapour-compression cycle. Saturated vapour leaves the evaporator, the compressor is isentropic, and saturated liquid leaves the condenser at the bubble point of the condensing pressure. The two temperatures are dew-point temperatures, which is how a blend with glide is normally rated. Properties come from CoolProp equations of state, the same kind of reference fluid model that NIST publishes in its REFPROP database. They are tabulated on a 5 K grid and interpolated, which keeps COP and capacity within 0.5% of the direct calculation. The result ranks refrigerants fairly against each other. It is not an equipment rating, because it leaves out superheat, subcooling, pressure drop and compressor efficiency.
Pressure, glide and discharge temperature
Compare pressures at the same dew-point temperatures. At 5°C evaporating and 45°C condensing, R-454B runs at 8.57 and 25.18 bar against 9.33 and 27.26 bar for R-410A, so its pressures are about 8% lower. R-32 condenses at 27.95 bar, only 2.5% above R-410A, but its discharge temperature is 75°C against 62°C. Glide separates the blends: R-454B has 1.5 K at 5°C evaporating and R-407C has 6.2 K, which changes how you read superheat and subcooling. Look up exact values with the PT chart calculator, and see the refrigerant blend calculator for how the blend composition sets the glide.
Capacity and COP
Volumetric capacity is the cooling produced per cubic metre of suction vapour, so it sets how large the compressor must be. At 5°C and 45°C, R-32 delivers 12.8% more than R-410A and R-454B delivers 2.1% less. COP is the heat removed divided by the compressor work in the ideal cycle: 5.08 for R-410A, 5.30 for R-454B and 5.33 for R-32. Real units differ because of compressor and heat exchanger design, so use these figures to compare refrigerants and not to predict a rating.
What GWP means for a leak
GWP converts a leaked mass into a CO2 equivalent: kilograms leaked times GWP. A 5 kg leak of R-410A is 10,440 kg of CO2e, and the same leak of R-454B is 2,330 kg. The values here are 100-year AR4 values, and the GWP of a blend is the mass-weighted average of its components. Later assessment reports give different numbers for some refrigerants, so compare only values from the same set. To total the emissions for a site or a fleet, use the greenhouse gas calculator.
The Canadian HFC phase-down
Canada regulates HFCs under the Ozone-depleting Substances and Halocarbon Alternatives Regulations, which implement the Kigali Amendment. Environment and Climate Change Canada says they decrease the supply of HFCs allowed into Canada step by step and reduce demand in manufactured products. It reports an average 25% reduction in annual HFC consumption over 2019 to 2022 and a 40% reduction target starting January 1, 2024. The ECCC page on the regulations has the details, and the refrigerant phaseout guide sets out the timeline by refrigerant.
A2L and A3 refrigerants
R-32 and R-454B are class A2L, which means lower flammability and slow flame spread. R-290 (propane) is class A3, highly flammable. Equipment is listed for a specific refrigerant and carries its own charge limit and installation requirements. The comparison flags flammable choices but does not check charge limits, so read the equipment listing and the applicable code before you specify one.
Checking what you can sell, import or install
Whether a refrigerant is allowed in a given product depends on the product type and on the regulations in force, which have changed more than once. After you have compared the options, run the product through the refrigerant regulation checker, then confirm with the manufacturer's literature.
Frequently Asked Questions
New residential and light commercial equipment is moving to R-454B and R-32, both class A2L. At 5°C evaporating and 45°C condensing, R-454B has a GWP of 466 against 2,088 for R-410A, which is 78% lower, with a condensing pressure of 25.18 bar against 27.26 bar and a theoretical COP 4.2% higher. R-32 has a GWP of 675 and a volumetric capacity 12.8% higher than R-410A, but its discharge temperature is 75°C against 62°C. Which one a manufacturer uses depends on the unit design, so check the nameplate.
No. R-454B is for equipment designed and listed for it, not a drop-in for installed R-410A systems. It is class A2L, so the components and installation practices have to suit a flammable refrigerant, and its glide is about 1.5 K at 5°C evaporating where R-410A is near zero. Charge only the refrigerant on the equipment nameplate.
Set the temperatures for the application and compare at that point. The Example: R-404A vs R-448A button uses -10°C evaporating and 40°C condensing. R-448A has a GWP of 1,387 against 3,922 for R-404A, which is 65% lower, and a theoretical COP 9.4% higher. Its evaporator glide is 6.2 K against 0.6 K, and its discharge temperature is 54°C against 46°C. Compare the glide before you retrofit, because it changes how you read superheat and subcooling.
R-407C is widely used to replace R-22, but the two are not identical. At 5°C evaporating and 45°C condensing, R-407C has a suction pressure of 5.47 bar against 5.84 bar, a volumetric capacity 5.5% lower, a theoretical COP 3.7% lower and an evaporator glide of 6.2 K. It also needs POE oil, where R-22 systems often use mineral oil or alkylbenzene. Follow the equipment manufacturer's retrofit bulletin.