Air-conditioners do great good, but at a high environmental cost

Re:Air-conditioners do great good, but at a high environment... by philipkglass on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @03:16PM (#17861952)

Refrigerating and air conditioning equipment can use plain hydrocarbon refrigerants such as propane and isobutane. US approval is fairly recent -- less than 10 years ago -- as you can see in this EPA table:

https://www.epa.gov/snap/substitutes-residential-and-light-c...

I believe that products using these low-GWP, zero-ODP refrigerants are marketed using the term "Greenfreeze."

https://cleantechnica.com/2008/09/29/first-greenfreeze-clima...

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Re:Air-conditioners do great good, but at a high environment... by jabl on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @03:53PM (#17862273)

Here in Europe (and I believe in many other parts of the world as well) propane and butane have been the standard refrigerant in domestic appliances for a couple of decades. I think the industry went straight to these when CFC's were banned.

Considering that your average refrigerator contains a quite modest amount of refrigerant, compared to all the other flammable stuff in your average apartment, it's not really any significant fire risk.

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Re:Air-conditioners do great good, but at a high environment... by gl00pp on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @04:06PM (#17862393)

Wow I was in HVAC for 15 years and NEVER heard about 'greenfreeze' WOW.

Thanks for links!

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