With variable refrigerant flow (VRF) HVAC systems growing in popularity, engineering refrigeration systems can become very intimidating to many design engineers. I know from my own professional experience, as I have had to brush off the cobwebs from my ASHRAE Handbook-Refrigeration and refresh myself on designing refrigeration systems.
Back in the 1980s, I joined a mechanical contracting firm that had been around since the 1940s and had in-house refrigeration design engineers who were more comfortable with the engineering design of these systems versus chilled water systems. A few of these engineers were also very comfortable and knowledgeable with ammonia systems. It was a technical environment unlike any of the consulting engineering firms involved with design-bid-build and construction management project delivery. For the most part, this firm was focused on design-build (D-B), and while we were very successful with this type of HVAC project delivery on projects like chiller plant expansions, we were also very successful with engineering built-up mechanical cooling systems for the industry through projects like plastic mold equipment manufacturing using refrigerant rather than chilled water. There were some really cost-effective benefits to using refrigerant in lieu of chilled water until the Montreal Protocol started to influence mechanical cooling applications.