Although summer isn't technically over most of us are ready to put it behind us. Of course it'll be with us for a long time considering the number of temperature records that were broken. Hopeful it won’t be the way things are from now on, otherwise we lose bragging rights. For those of you that read my last entry you know what a hard summer it was for technicians. Thankfully they all made it without any major injuries.
A few weeks ago I attended an ASHRAE seminar that had several good speakers that touched on a lot of big things coming our way. Some of which I’ve already touched on and a few that I certainly didn’t see coming. I would like to touch on one of the highlights and if you find it particularly interesting check out the ASHREA web site or the EPA’s web site for more information.
The big news is the HFC class of refrigerants was found to be contributing to global warming and the EPA is preparing a phase out timeline. The intention is to have a phase out similar to CFC and HCFC refrigerants. First the refrigerant manufactures will all fumble around with potential replacements. Second one of the big three equipment companies will select what it feels will be the best alternative. One of the other two will select a different refrigerant and the third will pick one of those two and put it in their equipment. The two out of three choice will win and all the little guys will fall in line behind the two. Then the government tax the HFC’s into exile. The year after the HFO sunset the EPA will determine the new refrigerant causes age spots on Baby Boomers and the whole process will begin over.
The potential replacements that are soon to go to the certification agencies are a class of refrigerants called HFO’s. DuPont has one through testing called R-1234yf and it’s very close to R-134a in performance and pressures. Unfortunately it has a slight flammability issue that may limit it to equipment with small quanities of refrigerant. There wasn’t a lot of information communicated about other potential replacements other than references to the type of problems that are slowing down the R & D process.
The EPA will add a new series of regulations to deal with the new refrigerants. We can expect this to come with regulation changes for the HFC refrigerants. We are potentially looking at recertification for technicians as well as tighter restrictions on documentation. As most people are aware the EPA is already stepping up its efforts and there have already been subtle changes. One example is calculating the percent of refrigerant lost and then added to any unrepaired system. You then take that percent times 12 (months) and that’s the calculated yearly loss rate used to determine the need for repairs. It keeps the onus of equipment violations with the owner who now faces $ 32,000.00 per day violations for things as simple as not keep the required records. Just what a cash strapped government agency needs. Think speed trap!
Stay alert for major changes in a short period of time. I expect the phase out of HFC’s to be more like CFC’s than HCFC’s.
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