Alternatives or Alternatives, Thats the question, Or as William Shakespeare would say it , to be or not to be. I like his the best. In the great hunt for the perfect refrigerant, The one that is CHEAP, easy to work with and does no harm to the environment, The Hvac field has undergone radical changes, When I started in the field in the stone ages ,there were only four refrigerant, R502, R11, R-22 and Good old R-12 which we all used in our cars, R-22 which is still around was used for comfort cooling and R-11 and R-502 was industrial and refrigeration. Today there are 12 or more types, The Primary gases are 134a used for small appliances and Automobiles, 410A used for homes and light commercial, 404a which is used for refrigeration and a multitude of replacements for 22 such as R099 and 422D and so on and so on, hew It makes my brain hurt.
Much of the old refrigerants were cheap and easy to work with and very safe but unfortunately they were not so nice to the ozone layer, this lead us to the new refrigerants which did not have the negative ozone depletions effect as the old refrigerants did.
Well remember when I said that the new alternative refrigerants had no effect on environment, Nether did I, I just said the Alternative refrigerants don’t hurt the Ozone layer, See it comes out that the new refrigerants contribute to the global warming dilemma so Guess
what? looks as though were in another round of Phase out and replacements refrigerant Alternatives. To stay ahead of the Curve, we have already sent two of our techs to Propane training, yes Propane. True manufacturing is using Propane as a refrigerant, There is no really sound alternatives on the horizon that is going to be an Alternative for the Alternatives so some manufactures are using or going to be using Propane. Oh yes, the same gas that we use to cook our burgers and Hot dogs on the outdoor will someday be in your new refrigerator. They wont call it Propane, Its called R-290. Doesn’t sound as flammable as propane does it.
Whats the scary thing about this is, Its in the hands of Congress and the EPA. This has politics written all over it regardless were you sit on the political Isle, Someone is going to make a lot of money while Somebody is going to have the headache. I for one is going to buy stock in Bayer Aspirin.
Ill keep you updated as the news comes in
