RE: The Newest Rulings on Refrigerants.
Is the Time Up for My HVAC or Refrigeration Unit?

Dear Website Customer:

For many years our industry has used refrigerants such as R-12, R-22, and R-502, that were considered safe for providing comfort and proper operation for your home, business, or production processes. Unfortunately, research started in 1974 by two scientists, Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina, and later confirmed by ozone depletion research in 1985, have proven that these refrigerants are causing damage to our environment. Subsequently in 1987, a global conference was held later resulting in the Clean Air Act of 1990.

This Federal Act has caused an entire upheaval in our once predictable world of cooling and refrigeration. 1996 was the year many of our refrigeration customers will remember due to the fact that as of January 1 of that year manufacturers could no longer produce any CFC refrigerants. Those refrigerants were used primarily in refrigeration and automotive applications. Today, all cars use R-134A refrigerant as a result of this Federal Legislation. Most of our refrigeration customers have been enduring the costly result of this legislation as we have recommended retrofitting your equipment to newer "ozone friendly" refrigerants.

What most people do not know is that in 1996, the phaseout schedule for R-22 went into effect. This will affect every residential split system HVAC unit, and every commercial packaged HVAC rooftop unit you own. The world as we know it with regard to refrigerant is about to change in a big way and you are going to pay for it.

What happened to your car with R-12 will happen to R-22 in your home and business!

This sounds bad, but fortunately many manufacturers are looking into this grave matter and have already come up with some good solutions. The long and the short of this story is to realize three key points:

• Consider the refrigerant your equipment uses during a major repair or replacement. Try to spend money today that will comply with the economics of this phaseout by considering the long term view rather than the instantaneous repair charge.
• Consider the safety factor of the newly proposed refrigerants. Some of these new refrigerants are thought to be carcinogenic. Others are made with propane, butane, ammonia, or other dangerous substances.
• Consider the efficiency of the new refrigerant. Some of the new refrigerants actually outperform the refrigerants they are replacing. Others can actually obtain more cooling from your existing equipment with no additional energy.

We have a tremendous wealth of information regarding this topic. Each person’s needs are different depending on how you use refrigerant in your cooling or process. Please call me at (214) 631-1010 if I can obtain any information for you, or make a specific recommendation. I’d like to hear from you.

Sincerely,

KAHN MECHANICAL CONTRACTORS

Josh Kahn, TACL A370C