Out With The Old & In With the New! R-22 vs R-410A Refrigerant

For the past 40 years R-22 has been the refrigerant of choice for most residential H.V.A.C. equipment. R-22 is a chlorine based HCFC. An HCFC molecule is made of chlorine, fluorine, carbon and hydrogen atoms. It has been tested and is believed that because of how R-22 is produced, that it plays a part in ozone depletion. The theory is that when the molecules that are contained in R-22 refrigerant are released into the atmosphere they are eventually broken down into their individual atoms and the chlorine atoms then react with the ozone and cause ozone destruction to happen faster than ozone creation. How are you and your family affected by ozone depletion? The stratospheric ozone protects us, our animals and our plans from dangerous ultraviolet rays and as the ozone depletes it loses its ability to protect us from the dangerous ultraviolet rays thus causing increased possibilities of things like skin cancers and cataracts.

The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of substances that are believed to play a part in ozone depletion. At the first signing of the treaty in 1987 it was decided that R-22 refrigerant would be one of the substances to eventually be phased out of production. Twenty years later R-22 is, in fact, being phased out of production and as of January 1, 2010 all new residential H.V.A.C. equipment manufactured in the United States will no longer use R-22. Understand that this is NEW manufactured equipment. R-22 will still be available to the consumer and equipment that already uses R-22 can still be serviced and if necessary recharged with R-22 up until January 1, 2020. ALL new production of R-22 refrigerant will be stopped as of January 1, 2020.

Replacing the R-22 is the new R-410A refrigerant. Starting January 1, 2010 all H.V.A.C. equipment manufactured in the U.S. will use R-410A. EarthPure        (R-410A) as it is also called is a HFC (non chlorine based) refrigerant with zero ozone depletion potential. Besides being ozone friendly R-410A refrigerant also captures heat and releases it better than R-22, which means that an air conditioer that uses R-410A requires less refrigerant that the same size system that uses R-22. The not so good news is that R-410A can not be used in systems that were built to use R-22 and if your system is older, it most likely uses R-22 refrigerant.

So the question is what to do if you have an R-22 system that has a coil that need to be replaced. Do you replace just the coil and continue using the R-22 or do you think about replacing the entire system? The answer depends on a few things. One thing to consider is how old your system is. If the system is still under warranty then it might be a good idea to go ahead and replace the part, but if the system is out of warranty you will want to consider replacing the entire unit and not just the part. The life span of a system is anywhere for 10-20 years and so if you have an older system you will most likely be better off replacing the system with one that uses the R-410A. Remember the R-22 will only be manufactured in the U.S. for another 10 years and many R-22 manufacturers are aleady closing their doors and so eventually their will be a cap on the amount of R-22 that is available which will create a price increase for all R-22 refrigerant. Every major air conditioner manufacturer in the U.S. has chosen    R-410A  to replace R-22. The choice for the environment and the choice of U.S. air conditioner manufacturers is R-410A refrigerant.