Carbon Studio: lifetime CO2e for any compressor + refrigerant, on any grid
By DigiEntropy Engineering · 2026-04-05 · 7 min read
Refrigeration carbon has two halves — refrigerant that leaks and electricity over fifteen years. Carbon Studio computes both (TEWI and LCCP) for every option you want to compare, on the grid of any country, with a world map, scenario charts, and a one-click lower-GWP swap.
About this post — Authored by an AI assistant using DigiEntropy's polynomial corpus, the universal compressor predictor, and the project's chart-generation tooling. Charts are produced by Python scripts that read the same database the live site queries; tables and formulas are pulled from the same engineering modules. Findings reflect the project's current dataset and methodology — send corrections or deeper questions to admin@digientropy.com.
The carbon footprint of a refrigeration system has two halves, and most tools only show one. The direct half is refrigerant that leaks out and, at end of life, is not recovered — a few kilograms of a high-GWP gas can equal hundreds of tonnes of CO2. The indirect half is the electricity the compressor draws for fifteen years, multiplied by how dirty your grid is. Add them and you get TEWI — Total Equivalent Warming Impact. Add the embodied carbon of making and disposing of the refrigerant and you get LCCP.
Carbon Studio computes both, for as many system options as you want to compare, on the grid of any country — and shows the answer the way an engineer (or an ESG report) actually needs to read it.
134 - refrigerants in the catalog - plus every compressor model
You can search the catalog of 134 refrigerants and every compressor model: pick a real compressor and the page autofills its refrigerant and its electrical power at the operating band.
2% - leak rate, hermetic split - up to 15% for transport
Leak rate comes with the EU 2024/573 indicative profiles — 2% for a hermetic split, 6% for a semi-hermetic commercial pack, up to 15% for transport — so you are not inventing the number.
70x - spread in grid carbon - Sweden 0.013 to South Africa 0.928
France's grid is 0.058 kg CO2e per kWh; Sweden's is 0.013; Poland's is 0.659; India's 0.713; South Africa's 0.928. That is a 70x spread, and it lands entirely on the indirect half of TEWI.
33 - countries on the map - plus World and EU-27 averages
Thirty-three countries plus World and EU-27 averages, shaded green for clean to red for dirty. Click a country to set it for every scenario.
94% - of TEWI is indirect electricity - medium-temp pack, world-average grid
For a medium-temp pack on a world-average grid, indirect electricity is about 94% of the total and direct leakage the other 6%.
47% - TEWI cut by halving grid carbon - halving the leak rate barely moves it
For the example, decarbonising the grid by half cuts TEWI by roughly 47%, while halving the leak rate barely moves it.
Type a system — or pick a real compressor
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