Now that we are in a new year of greatly reduced supplies of new and imported HCFC-22, it is important to note that there is no ban on the use of R-22. You can use R-22 for as long as supplies last and you have well running R-22 equipment to service.

The potential for growth and development exists across the entire HVACR landscape, but perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than in the area of refrigeration technology.

This past year I was working on a story in which I asked contractors to comment on trends in refrigerants. I was doing so because so much of my writing in 2014 related to new directions for such gases. I start 2015 with the same theme: Continue to work with familiar refrigerants, but be prepared to shift to newer kids on the block.

Live Active Leisure needed to replace its existing system due to the legally imposed phaseout of HCFCs in the United Kingdom. Johnson Controls proposed the installation of an air-cooled ammonia chiller complete with heat recovery and a very low ammonia charge due to the location being close to a pedestrians’ footpath.

The answer to the crossword puzzle I was working on was an old friend of ours in the HVACR Industry: EPA as in Environmental Protection Agency.

Well, the adventures of HCFC-22 have certainly gotten interesting. For seemingly forever, we’ve known the final phaseout for the production and importation of R-22 was going to be Dec. 31, 2019. But then the EPA called for a more aggressive reduction, set to end in 2018. Then, some industry folks entered into the fray this year.

Europe is now only a year away from a total ban on R-22 and other hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). And Peter Dinnage warns, the HVAC industry has to act fast to get the message across to customers.