Sometimes when a decade ends, some of the popular styles of the day vanish with it (if anyone has a pair of JNCO jeans, snap bracelets or a jacket with large built in shoulder-pads collecting dust at the back of your closet you’ll understand this phenomenon). The home refrigerant world is no different (although much less likely to wind up as a topic of discussion on a CNN documentary about the 2010s down the road).
A common issue that we as home inspectors are running into currently is the phase out of R-22 refrigerant also known as HCFC-22. If your system was installed before 2010, there is a high probability that it contains R-22 refrigerant which will be impacted by the change that is occurring January 1, 2020.
Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) are closely related to Chlorofluorocarbons with the addition of one or more Hydrogen atoms. Some people will remember when CFCs were used in aerosol cans in the 1970’s and were later banned as they were adding to the growing problem of ozone depletion, which is the main reason that HCFCs are currently being phased out.
As of January 1, 2020, the production and importation of “virgin” R-22 will be illegal which will lead to increasing prices of the available reclaimed R-22, that will contain impurities and will possibly lead to the deterioration of any system it is added to.
What can you do? Most HVAC technicians are recommending that the system be replaced with a more current model that has R-410a being used as its refrigerant. While this may be a costly move, the alternatives could be far more costly. If you decide that you want to simply service your system by adding reclaimed R-22, this service technique will act as a band-aid in the short term. However, the growing cost of reclaimed R-22 will only cause this solution to become more and more financially inefficient over the years. Additionally, servicing with reclaimed R-22 does not solve the underlying problem that your system is still outdated and will eventually need to be replaced. Another option is to retrofit your system, which is not so simple as R-410a runs at a much higher pressure than R-22. This system overhaul is an extremely costly fix and must be performed by a highly educated and experienced HVAC technician and it may void any warranty that your current system has in place.
My favorite word in the home inspection business is “budget”. If you have a system that runs on R-22, start budgeting for replacement and rest easy knowing that your new system will be far more efficient and safer for our planet.