In today's use of refrigeration systems, legal requirements such as EN378 must be complied with so that the leakage of refrigerant is detected in due time. For this purpose, refrigerant leak detection systems are used, which must meet the following requirements:
- Occupational health and safety of personnel
- Environmental protection
- Minimize or eliminate damage to products, buildings or equipment
For all these requirements, point detectors such as the MGS-150, MGD-100 or even the latest MGS-400 series are commonly used, as these detectors comply with regulatory requirements such as EN378.
However, these detectors have a sensitivity that will not detect the smallest of leaks. This inevitably means that the detection system will not respond even though some refrigerant is leaking, albeit at a non-hazardous level.
The user only recognizes this "very small" refrigerant leakage by the fact that refrigerant has to be refilled at certain intervals. Thus, from a purely economic point of view, these small leaks are large losses that could be reduced by a highly sensitive refrigerant warning system.
These losses naturally also play a role in supermarkets, since many products have to be cooled in supermarkets.
This is where the highly sensitive refrigerant warning systems from Bacharach come in.
The concept of the Multi-Zone and Single-Zone systems is that the air to be monitored is fed to the sensor. This means that no point detector is required at the monitoring location, but air is sucked off at the extraction point and fed to the sensor via a hose system. The Multi-Zone MZ system can monitor up to 48 such extraction zones with appropriate splitters. Hoses can even be installed in refrigerated cabinets to detect leakage within the refrigerated cabinet.
The alarm threshold can be set by the user on the device. An alarm is triggered as soon as the alarm threshold is exceeded and the display of the device shows the extraction zone where the leakage was detected.
Now, a high-precision portable leak detector, such as the Bacharach PGM-IR, can be used on site to precisely locate the leak. Conventional portable leak detectors usually do not have this low resolution of the MZ system and therefore cannot detect the identified leaks. The portable PGM-IR is therefore the leak detector to use in such a situation. Like the MZ system, the PGM-IR can detect the smallest leaks down to 1ppm and is also equipped with a library of over 50 halogenated refrigerants. Experience has shown that the PGM-IR can cut the duration of a leak detection in half, provided that the leak can even be found with a conventional detector.
Another advantage of the Bacharach Multi-Zone refrigerant detection systems is the fact that only one sensor is used. Refrigerant detection systems must be checked or calibrated according to legal requirements. In a system equipped with point detectors, each individual sensor or transmitter must be tested. Since the Bacharach Multi-Zone system is equipped with only "one" sensor, only one sensor needs to be checked/calibrated. This simplifies the maintenance of the instrument, as well as the long lifetime of the sensor (up to 7 years).
The HGM-MZ, which detects halogenated refrigerants, is equipped with an integrated library of more than 50 refrigerants. This library is constantly being expanded and the user can install an updated library himself without having to change the sensor. The advantage of this library is that, for example, one extraction zone detects R404A and the next zone detects R22. The user can thus use new refrigeration systems or refrigerated cabinets without the need for a new refrigerant detection system.
SUMMARY
- To meet legal requirements the new detector series MGS-400er is needed.
- In order to meet legal requirements and to save costs, which can be traced back to the smallest leakages, the Multi-Zone MZ systems (HGM-MZ, CO2-MZ, AGM-MZ) should be used.