It was the tail end of the 2005 cooling season in Missouri. Kelly and Marcus had been living in their home about 12 years, and last year they had to replace their heat pump. It was the end of the season, but the timing was right for their budget. Besides, it was hot and neither of them tolerates the heat very well.
They had hoped to be able to fix the old unit, but it was an old heat pump (20-plus years) in a very old house - almost 100 years old. It seemed smarter to replace the unit with one that was more efficient. The new unit also used R-410A, and the information they had read online about the refrigerant resonated in their ecological consciences, which had slumbered since the 1970s.