Chris's Corner

August 1, 2010

Going Green

By Chris G

The green movement has sprung to life and continues to shape the future of the HVAC industry. Many manufactures are scrambling to become “Green”. Providing energy efficient equipment is the obvious way to begin a green initiative. Air conditioning and heat pump systems are vastly more energy efficient than systems manufactured 10 years ago. 15 SEER is now common place with systems achieving ratings as high as 21 SEER. The energy savings can amount to huge $ savings. For instance, a ten year old system which had a SEER rating of 8.0 when new may be operating at 5.0-6.0 SEER due to clogged or restricted coils and old motors which are drawing higher amps than when new. Replacing this system with one which is rated for 16 SEER could double or even triple the energy efficiency of your system. Considering that air conditioning uses about 52% of the energy in an average west Florida home, (data provided by Progress Energy) your monthly electric bill could see savings of 30%-45%.

Another option for going green is to reduce the amount of new materials used in the construction of a product. For this reason manufactures have increased the amount of recycled materials used in the manufacture of a particular product.

The Trane Company is not immune to touting its “Green” benefits. Trane offers ultra high efficient units which consume considerably less energy and utilize 80% post consumer recycled product in their condensers and 60% in the air handlers. Trane has positioned itself as an industry leader in the Green movement. Trane is committed to providing energy efficient products and is devoted to leading the industry by exploring new methods to reduce emissions and incorporate new materials into its product line.

Remember, we all have to share this planet. It’s up to everyone to do their part to reduce, reuse and recycle.

April 10, 2010

The Skinny on R-22

By Chris G

As of January 1, 2010 the EPA has mandated the national shift from R-22 (Freon) to R-410a (Puron). This means that manufactures cannot build equipment which operates on R-22 (Freon), any equipment with a manufacturing date before January 1, 2010 can still be sold. The motive behind the change is to minimize the effect that escaped refrigerant has on the environment. Puron is a non-ozone depleting chemical and is not considered a “green house gas.”

This refrigerant conversion has led to vast confusion for the end consumer. The purpose of this blog entry is to clear the waters when it comes to R-22.

The first misconception is that R-22 cannot be purchased. This is false, R-22 is readily available and will be available through the end of 2025, however; the price of R-22 refrigerant has risen dramatically. Most manufactures have stated that replacement parts for R-22 systems will continued to be stocked but will not rule out any price increases.

The most confusion arises when a homeowner has a relatively new component of a split system (i.e. an air handler or condenser) and the other component has failed. Currently many manufactures still have some R-22 equipment available for purchase. The available equipment is scattered in warehouses across the country and in some cases may have extended shipping times and shipping costs.

With some manufactures, the R-410 air handlers can be converted back to R-22. This means that if your condenser is fairly new but the air handler needs to be replaced, the air handler can be converted by changing the thermal expansion valve. If the condenser has failed and you have an air handler which is convertible, the expansion valve in the existing air handler may be changed with an R-410a valve effectively converting the system to operate on the new R-410a Puron refrigerant.

Changing one component of a split system poses a different problem. The building departments require an air conditioning system to deliver at least 13 SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) in order to obtain a permit. The governing body of appliance energy efficiency is the American Heating and Refrigeration Institute. The AHRI rates air conditioning and heat pump systems for energy efficiency and assigns a reference number to the equipment combination. When a building permit is requested for an equipment change-out, the AHRI ref # is required, therefore; when only changing out one component it must be with an approved matching component. The issue is that AHRI does not test new equipment with older equipment or with equipment which has been converted to accept a different refrigerant than for which it was designed. In this case a permit would not be issued for the air conditioning installation.

Due to this, in most cases it is necessary to change the entire system with a system which has been rated by the AHRI. This is the only way to ensure that the equipment will deliver the efficiency which was promised A complete list of approved equipment combinations and the energy ratings can be found on the AHRI web site at www.ahri.org.

In the long run it is better to change the entire split system with a high efficiency system. It is projected that the cost for R-22 Freon and parts for R-22 equipment will increase and eventually will be limited in availability. Newer high efficiency equipment will have lower operating and maintenance costs and will lower your carbon footprint.