What does a high efficiency purge unit do with the refrigerant it separates from the non-condensable gas it removes?
Correct Answer
B) It condenses the refrigerant and returns it to the chiller
A purge unit pulls a mixture of air and refrigerant vapor off the condenser. A high efficiency design cools that mixture enough to condense the refrigerant, drains the liquid back into the chiller, and discharges only the remaining gas. The better the separation, the less refrigerant leaves per pound of air removed, which is exactly what purge efficiency measures. The refrigerant returned this way stays in the machine and never becomes an emission.
Why This Is the Correct Answer
Condensing the refrigerant out of the purge stream and draining it back to the chiller is what makes a purge unit efficient. It keeps the charge in the machine while still removing the non-condensable gas, so the machine is protected from air without paying for it in lost refrigerant.
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Option A: It stores the refrigerant in a small cylinder for the technician to reclaim later
A collection cylinder for the technician is not how purge units are built. The recovered refrigerant goes straight back into the chiller.
Option C: It passes the refrigerant through a small heater that breaks it down
Nothing in a purge unit is designed to destroy refrigerant, and heating refrigerant produces acids and other decomposition products. A purge unit that destroyed refrigerant would also destroy the efficiency it is measured on.
Option D: It vents the refrigerant along with the air and meters the quantity released
Metering the release does not make it acceptable. A purge unit is designed to keep refrigerant in the machine, not to account for venting it.
Memory Technique
Cool it, drop it, send it home. The purge keeps the refrigerant and throws out the air.
Reference Hint
High efficiency purge units condense refrigerant out of the purge stream and return it to the chiller, discharging mostly non-condensable gas.
More epa-608-type-3 Questions
Some jobs on a chiller count as a major repair under the refrigerant rules, which changes what a technician is allowed to do with a badly leaking machine. Which job falls into that category?
An owner asks how many pounds of refrigerant the rules allow to be left inside a chiller once the recovery has been signed off. What is the correct answer to give him?
The motor of a hermetic centrifugal chiller sits inside the pressure boundary rather than outside it on a shaft. What follows from that construction?
An oxygen monitor is used to decide whether a chiller machine room is safe to enter after a refrigerant release. Below what oxygen reading is the atmosphere treated as oxygen deficient?
A low-pressure chiller's rupture disc has a discharge line running from it. Where does that line have to terminate?
A refrigerant vapor detector in a chiller machine room reaches its alarm level. Besides sounding, what is that alarm expected to do?
Which piece of equipment requires a technician to hold Type III certification before it may be serviced?
What property of the refrigerant is what actually places an appliance into the low-pressure category?
During normal operation, what condition exists inside the evaporator of a running low-pressure centrifugal chiller?
In what unit is the required final recovery vacuum for a low-pressure appliance normally expressed?
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Previous Question
A chiller's purge unit is discharging normally on every cycle, yet the condenser pressure keeps climbing through the afternoon. What does that combination point to?
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An owner asks how many pounds of refrigerant the rules allow to be left inside a chiller once the recovery has been signed off. What is the correct answer to give him?