Refrigerants

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Appliance Recycling Centers of America Inc. (ARCA) announced that it has been granted a patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,931,289) covering its systems, methods, and techniques for facilitating the recovery and recycling of refrigerants and oil from air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, and other appliances that contain refrigerant.

The No. 1 trend in HVAC refrigeration is the increase in R-22 prices as the supply-demand equation sorts itself out. 

Super Change™ has been developed to allow a fast and easy conversion from R-22 refrigerant or any mineral/alkylbenzene oil system, to any hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant including polyolester (POE)-based R-407C and R-410A. 

A-Gas International has announced the formation of A-Gas Americas following the merger of sister companies Coolgas, RemTec, CIJSA, and A-Gas Performance Chemicals. A-Gas Americas will operate from the companies’ existing locations within the group in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas as well as Mexico.

Proactive HVAC contractors have been working to educate their employees and clients on the inevitable phaseout. And, with the price of R-22 already starting to rise in many areas, educated contractors are finding it easier to convince customers to replace aging R-22 units with newer, more efficient models.

Choosing the correct line size is very important to the overall success of the installation. Incorrectly sized refrigerant lines can lead to system problems, excessive energy consumption, and higher installation and operation costs.

Supermarket owners want refrigeration systems that are energy efficient to hold down costs and pro-environmental to portray political correctness. But, for engineers, contractors, and technicians, that approach may not be that easy when opening a new store or retrofitting an existing location.

The line set flushing process can be time consuming and costly, especially if a second person is required. For that reason, ICOR International has produced a short video to demonstrate how to construct a universal looping kit that will improve line set flushing efficiency by reducing waste and making the process a one person job.

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 refrigerant landscape is preparing for a regulatory makeover. By 2018, approximately 80 percent of commercial refrigerators and ice machines will have to go through a redesign to meet new DOE standards for efficiency; the EPA is proposing to delist R-404A and R-134a in many commercial refrigeration applications; and more.