Gas-fired heat pumps essentially use natural gas to drive their refrigeration cycle.
BS EN 12309 is a European Standard that discusses the gas-fired sorption appliances for heating and/or cooling. The BS EN 12309 series aims to provide with best industry practices that ensure gas-fired sorption appliances for heating and/or cooling are safe and reliable for use.
BS EN 12309 covers appliances that include one or a combination of the following:
BS EN 12309 applies to appliances designed to be used for space heating or cooling or refrigeration with or without heat recovery.
BS EN 12309 applies to appliances having flue gas systems of type B and C (according to CEN/TR 1749) and to appliances designed for outdoor installations.
BS EN 12309 only applies to appliances having:
The above appliances can have one or more primary or secondary functions (i.e., heat recovery - see definitions in EN 12309-1:2014).
In the case of packaged units (consisting of several parts), BS EN 12309 applies only to those designed and supplied as a complete package.
BS EN 12309-3 is the third part of the series that specifies the test conditions for the rating of energy parameters of monovalent gas-fired sorption appliances for heating and/or cooling with a net heat input not exceeding 70 kW.
Note 1: The appliances having their condenser cooled by air and by the evaporation of external additional water are not covered by BS EN 12309.
Note 2: Installations used for heating and/or cooling of industrial processes are not within the scope of BS EN 12309.
BS EN 12309-3 on test conditions for gas-fired sorption appliances is relevant to:
With significant amounts of thermal energy being wasted, the demand for heat-conversion technologies to harness this untapped potential of wasted heat has been growing. In this regard, gas-fired sorption appliances can utilize waste heat and renewable energy to outperform conventional heat pumps, while increasing energy efficiency and minimizing environmental impacts.
BS EN 12309-3 provides environmental conditions and electrical power supply requirements for appliances designed for indoor and outdoor installations. Moreover, rating test conditions for cooling mode of water-to-water, water-to-brine, air-to-water and air-to-brine appliances in cooling mode and heating mode are also covered.
Thus, compliance with BS EN 12309-3-recommended testing conditions can provide manufacturers and quality control personnel to accurately demonstrate the performance of gas-fired sorption appliances to determine whether they are fit for purpose.
EN 12309-3:2014