What Is Freon? (2024) | Right now’s House owner

Freon has been a family title in air-con and refrigeration for many years, and lots of use the phrase to confer with any form of refrigerant. Nevertheless, it’s truly a model title that encompasses a couple of particular varieties of refrigerant. 

Many chemical refrigerants are leaving the marketplace for environmental causes, however barring severe issues, you’re unlikely to exchange your total HVAC unit quickly. Right here’s what it’s worthwhile to learn about Freon for the timebeing.

A Temporary Historical past of Freon

Freon performed a significant half within the historical past of air conditioners. DuPont developed Freon refrigerants within the early Nineteen Thirties as a safer different to different chemical compounds, like ammonia, sulfur dioxide, and methyl chloride, that had been utilized in early mechanical cooling programs. These early air conditioner refrigerants had been poisonous and unsafe if leaked.

Industrial chemist Thomas Midgley Jr. led the hassle to develop chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) compounds that had been non-flammable, non-toxic, and chemically secure. R-12, marketed underneath the Freon title, was the primary CFC refrigerant DuPont commercialized in 1931. HVAC system producers broadly adopted it for house and business air conditioners within the a long time to observe.

To compete with Freon, different corporations began manufacturing competing CFC refrigerants underneath model names like Genetron and Arcton. A few of them had higher thermodynamic properties and chemical stability.

In 2015, The Chemours Firm spun off from DuPont, and it owns the Freon title to this present day.

Refrigerant Numbering

Chemical refrigerants obtain an R-number designation from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE.) This quantity can let you know extra concerning the molecular composition of the product. Listed here are a couple of frequent examples:

• R-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane, a CFC)
• R-22 (monochlorodifluoromethane, an HCFC)
• R-134a (tetrafluoroethane, an HFC)

Refrigerant cylinders and labels use assigned colours for identification functions. R-12 is white, R-22 is mild inexperienced, and R-134a is mild blue.

How Freon Works in Residence HVAC Techniques

Freon and different varieties of refrigerants run via devoted traces in your air conditioner. The system’s compressor heats the Freon gasoline, which then travels via the coils. Because the coils cool the gasoline, the Freon turns right into a liquid state. It then strikes to the evaporators, the place it turns into a low-pressure gasoline absorbing warmth from the encircling air. This, in flip, helps cool your house.

Indicators of Low Freon and Find out how to Repair It

Even when you by no means need to cope with a refrigerant leak, Freon will nonetheless naturally deplete over time. Should you see any of those indicators, you could have a low Freon problem:

• Your air conditioner takes longer to chill your house.
• Your air conditioner is simply blowing out heat air.
• Your utility payments have develop into greater than regular.
• You see ice buildup on the refrigerant traces.

Licensed HVAC professionals can add refrigerant to your HVAC unit if it’s low. This isn’t a DIY job—refrigerants are harmful chemical compounds, and there could be severe well being penalties when you inhale the vapors. You’d additionally need to navigate a pressurized tank and complicated gear, and making a mistake might harm the entire unit.

The Phaseout of CFC and HCFC Refrigerants

The earth’s ozone layer helps filter out dangerous ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the solar. Its depletion first turned a significant environmental problem within the Eighties.

CFC and HCFC refrigerants like R-12 and R-22 had been as soon as dominant out there, however underneath the 1987 Montreal Protocol, they’ve been phased out globally for his or her ozone depletion potential. Developed nations stopped making CFCs in 1996, and most began phasing out HCFC refrigerants by the tip of 2020. R-410a’s phaseout will start in 2025.

Present provides of CFC and HCFC refrigerants can be found, however they’re dwindling shortly, and it’s now forbidden to fabricate or import them into the U.S. With provide and demand, R-22’s price per pound is extraordinarily excessive.

Replacements for Freon Refrigerants

There are substitute “drop-in” refrigerants that function with R-22 and R-410a Freon. You too can discover different Freon substitute choices relying in your particular air conditioner’s mannequin. Nevertheless, it might be less expensive to exchange your HVAC system in some instances.

For programs that used R-22 Freon, potential replacements can embrace R-407c, R-438a, or R-453a.

Although R-410a remains to be prevalent right now, alternate options like R-470a entered the market earlier than the HCFC phaseout. Extra choices will undoubtedly launch as time goes on.

Refrigerant Administration and Rules

With the rise of environmental issues, the refrigerants which can be nonetheless allowed have develop into extremely regulated. You’ll need to take note of federal, state, and native guidelines pertaining to every of those conditions:

• Disposal: More often than not, you’ll have to dispose and recycle refrigerant correctly in response to environmental laws. Illegally releasing them can incur a major effective.
• Labeling: HVAC gear should have labeling with the precise sort of refrigerant used.
• Leak detection and restore: In case your HVAC unit or home equipment have a refrigerant leak, restore it as quickly as potential to mitigate well being and environmental dangers.
• Buy laws: You might not be capable of buy some HCFC refrigerants with out an EPA technician certification.
• Document-keeping: Refrigerant suppliers should preserve data of their gross sales for not less than three years. They have to additionally preserve data about refrigerant they obtain for recycling.