Here are three things that the HVAC industry needs to do in order to get through this crisis:

1: Manufacturers need to be shipping products with more charge. The industry leaders have already started this. Trane was the first one to this conclusion when they announced on May 7 that they will temporarily increase the factory pre-charge of refrigerant in all vertical-discharge split air conditioner and heat pump models, in both the premium and the value lines, that use R-454B. They also announced an additional fee per unit would apply to account for the increased refrigerant volume.

On May 16, Carrier joined the trend by announcing they will begin increasing the amount of refrigerant pre-charged in residential ducted splits from the standard 15-foot line set to 30 feet on most units. 

“We decided to go out to a 30-foot line set on most of our residential splits,” said Nick Arch, vice president and general manager, residential HVAC solutions at Carrier. “We're adding additional charge in the unit, which then should lower the refrigerant requirements on the installation and thus reduce the number of cylinders required to support those installs. We are doing that in an accelerated manner to make sure our customers are taken care of. We did decide that we're not adding an additional surcharge. There's been so much change on our dealers and our customers that while we realize it is an extra cost for us, we really felt it was an easy call.”

2: Contractors need to stop hoarding refrigerants. A portion of this seems to be the HVAC industry version of toilet paper during the early days of COVID. 

I get it from a contractor perspective. It is tough to get your hands on R-454B, and every time you do the cost has gone up. It only makes sense to plan ahead to make sure you can get the refrigerant at a reasonable price.

But it is a little chicken or the egg situation on what is causing the shortage. At the very least, contractors buying refrigerant they don’t immediately need is not helping the situation. There is not much repair work being done on these products, and the refrigerant is usually only being used to top off new installations.

“Unfortunately, there has been a little bit of panic buying because of the scarcity,” Arch said. “A lot of people are purchasing more than they may need so that had added to the tremendous surge of demand. But we’re expecting that supply to start to level off where we need it to be by the end of July, and then going into September we would expect things to kind of normalize.”

3: Do not mix refrigerants. R-410A, R-454B, and R-32 are different refrigerants. This means you should not be recovering the R-454B charge from a system and replacing it with R-410A; topping off a partially charged R-454B system with R-32 or R-410A; or installing an undercharged R-454B system with a plan to come back and top it off later.

The manufacturers did not design this equipment to be used with multiple refrigerants, so in addition to possibly causing problems for the homeowners it will almost certainly void the warranty.

These are tough times for HVAC contractors and the industry at large. July can seem like a long way off for supply to start to catch up with demand. But if we all put together and pull in the same direction we can come out the other side sooner rather than later.

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R-454B Refrigerant Shortage Podcast

HVAC contractors are dealing with the R-454B refrigerant shortage. Nick Arch from Carrier joins the podcast to identify the problem and possible solutions.