Friday May 22nd, 2020, St. George’s, Grenada. Local appliance supplier, Jonas Browne & Hubbards (G’da) Limited joins the list of air-condition suppliers that sells the ozone-friendly, low global warming potential (GWP), energy efficient, R-32 air-conditioners. JBH has been a key stakeholder of the National Ozone Unit (NOU) dating back to 2002, as one of the leading suppliers of refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) equipment in Grenada.

Mr. Anthony Phillip – Manager Appliance Dept

Manager of the Appliance Department, Mr. Anthony Phillip demonstrated with pride the new line of products to the National Ozone Officer, Mr. Leslie Smith, at the company’s showroom at their main store on the Carenage, St. George’s. Mr. Phillip credits the support and encouragement provided by the NOU as a major factor in introducing this new line of environmentally friendly ACs. Earlier this year, from February 1-5, Mr. Phillip was a beneficiary of attending the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Winter Exhibition & Conference in Orlando Florida, where he was exposed to the latest available RAC technologies on the market.

In a noticeable small market, this brings to three the number of AC suppliers that have taken early initiatives to introduce this relatively new technology to Grenada. The other two current suppliers are Modern Electrical Solutions and Cooling Tech Limited. Other leading RAC companies, such as Viking Engineering and Total Engineering have also signalled their intention to include R-32 equipment in their catalogue of AC units in 2020. Grenada has already being recognised regionally for being among the first countries in the Americas to have R-290 (natural refrigerant – propane) air-conditioners commercially available.

Air-conditioning equipment using R-32 AC refrigerant is one of the alternative low-global warming potential (GWP) options to replace the high-GWP, R-410 unitary/splitAC units. As of 2019, it was discovered that R-410A was the dominant refrigerant used in Grenada and indications are of an increasing demand. However, since Grenada has already ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol which came into effect on January 1, 2019, the use of these high GWP refrigerants must be phased down over the next two and half decades.

Many RAC experts have proven that R-32 AC units are a much better choice than R410A in terms of their impact on the environment and the economic benefits to the end users. Although they both belong to the same family of gases referred to as, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), R-32 has about one third the GWP of R-410A and is more energy efficient. Therefore it is much less damaging to the environment (if it is released into the atmosphere) and uses less electricity to operate.

The early actions taken by these companies is a clear indication of their contributions to the global effort, at the national level, to ultimately reduce global atmospheric temperatures and reverse the impacts of climate change.