Thought about toughing out the R-22 phaseout with your old air conditioner? You might want to think again, especially in light of how expensive it could get to keep your older A/C around.
After 2020, refrigerant manufacturers will cease production of R-22 in accordance with U.S. and international regulations. With no new supplies of the refrigerant available, contractors will only have access to supplies harvested from older R-22 HVAC systems. That leaves few options for those planning to stick with their old A/C and heat pump systems.
If you haven’t replaced your HVAC system with a modern, energy-efficient model, then here’s what you could expect as the R-22 phaseout date draws near:
- As supplies dwindle, it’ll become increasingly expensive to maintain your old A/C unit. At some point, there may not be any R-22 left to recharge your current system with at any price.
- The cost of maintaining other A/C components may also increase as time goes on, until the end of the system’s working life.
- Older A/C systems aren’t as energy-efficient as their modern counterparts. Keeping an old system alive could mean losing hundreds of dollars per year in excess energy costs.
- Drop-in replacements such as R-422B and R-407C could prolong your system’s life, but at a greater long-term cost than installing and operating a new system that uses R-410A.
- A/C systems fitted with semi-hermetic compressors or mixed metering devices may not be compatible at all with the above replacements, necessitating complete system replacement anyway.
In the end, keeping your old system beyond the R-22 phaseout could be more expensive in the long run than installing a brand-new HVAC system that uses the latest in energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly refrigerants.
For more information and advice, contact the professionals at Arpi’s Industries. We proudly offer our heating and cooling services to homeowners throughout Calgary and the surrounding areas.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Calgary, Alberta about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about A/Cs and other HVAC topics, downloadour free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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