This issue of The NEWS has an extended focus on refrigerant reclamation in the context of the announcement that it appears there will be a significant drop-off in supplies of virgin R-22.
I’m not sure many people in the HVACR industry started 2012 with a New Year’s resolution that went something like, “I want to be totally confused over the cost and availability of R-22.”
The Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) recently published its latest ComforTool. The latest series installment, “Why is the Price of R-22 Refrigerant So High?” explains why the price of the R-22 refrigerant recently increased and what may happen in the future.
How much HCFC-22 will be available to contractors in 2012 is an unanswered question as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers a faster phaseout of HCFCs. The EPA began the year by issuing a proposal called Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Adjustments to the Allowance System for Controlling HCFC Production, Import, and Export.
HCFC-22 may not have been historically a refrigeration refrigerant, but it sure has been high on the minds of those wholesalers who deal with a lot of refrigeration products.
Production and importation of HCFC refrigerants including R-22 have been on hold since the first of the year while the industry waits for an official go-ahead from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Arkema’s North American Forane® refrigerants website has expanded its information about R-22 retrofitting in response to users’ needs to better understand the many options open to them.
Carrier wound up at the center of the debate over dry-shipped R-22 units after petitioning the EPA to close the loophole allowing the installation of new R-22 units. For spearheading Carrier’s petition and leading the charge to continue the phaseout of R-22, John Mandyck is a 2011 NEWSmaker.
The year 2011 introduced the concept of dry-shipping HCFC-22 condensing units for retrofit applications, and that shipping and use is expected to continue through 2012.
