Ever wonder how ice cream in your freezer can stay frozen, or how a giant movie theater can stay so cool during blistering summers? The easy answer is refrigerant gas and to explain it simply, a refrigerant gas is the working fluid used in the refrigeration cycle of air conditioning systems, heat pumps, refrigerators, etc. When combined with other components of a cooling system, the refrigerant absorbs the heat from the surrounding air and converts it from a liquid into a vapor and from a vapor back into a liquid. This needs to occur again and again, continuously, without fail in order to provide cool air. Refrigerant is found inside the copper coils of most cooling appliances and comes in many codes, such as: R290 (Propane), R717 (Ammonia), or R134A (Tetrafluoroethane) just to name a few.
And so, like many things, some refrigerants come and other refrigerants go. Come to find out, certain refrigerants aren't friendly to the environment. So the powers that be step in to regulate what types of refrigerant we can commercially use and can't use. The latest refrigerant on the chopping block is a gas called R22 (also called HCFC22). R22 is one of the most commonly used refrigerants that is being phased out. It was discovered that HCFC (hydrochlorofluorocarbons 🥴) has ozone depletion and modest global warming potential. For this reason, and among others, governments around the world agreed to phase out the production of these types of refrigerants. As of January 1, 2020, there is now a complete ban on R22 in the United States, which means the production and import of any R22 refrigerant is entirely illegal. Unfortunately, there are still countless air conditioners and heat pumps that were manufactured prior to 2010 (when the R22 phase out began) that use R22. Units using this refrigerant are not banned and can still be in operation and serviced using R22, but the cost of maintaining these units has been increasing as R22 refrigerant is becoming more difficult to acquire. Making buying a brand-new system to make more financial sense than maintaining an older one.
Multiple types of innovative refrigerants have been manufactured to replace R22 refrigerant, such as R410A (also called R410 or HCFC410). R410A is an alternative option for air conditioning applications, and many manufactures are using this refrigerant in their cooling products in place of R22. But don't get too comfortable with R410A staying around. Almost as soon as R410A was being implemented in cooling systems across the country, manufacturers and government agencies began to realize that it was also damaging to the environment. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of R410A was higher than it was for R22. So now R410A will begin its phase out on January 1, 2024. The next refrigerant to replace R410A could be R32. R32 is forecasted to be the standard refrigerant for residential and commercial cooling equipment. It has already become the go-to refrigerant for many other countries, and has a much lower GWP than R22 and R410A. But don't hit the panic button yet if your cooling system is using R410A. R410A refrigerant is expected to be available for many years to come. By the time R410A's supply runs low and becomes expensive, your cooling system will most likely be at the end of its lifespan and will be replaced with a newer model using the latest acceptable refrigerant. Very similar to the outcome of R22. I guess you could call it, 'The circle of refrigerant life.'
The reality is that experts don’t know of any refrigerant that is “friendly” to the environment. It really comes down to how little refrigerant gas is being used, as no refrigerant that escapes into the atmosphere is good for the environment.
Maybe we just need to manage our cooling systems better. For more information on the R22 ban, click here.
For more information on R32, click here.
And, for more information on refrigerants in general, click here.