Re:“My chest fridge consumes about 0.1 kWh a day.”
by inferiorhuman on Friday November 04, 2022 @07:37AM
(#33464996)
Unlike automotive (mobile) air conditioning, the kind of refrigerators you'll find in a kitchen rarely leak as they're designed with no fittings or perishable/permeable hoses to leak. To do any sort of service you open up the sealed system which creates the possibility for deliberate or accidental leaks.
But…
At least in the US kitchen refrigerators have moved to hydrocarbon refrigerants (R600a a.k.a. isobutane) which have a much lower global warming potential of around 3.3x that of CO2. Prior to that it was R134a, and I'm pretty sure R410a was mostly limited to HVAC applications. More to the point a modern refrigerator has on the order of a couple ounces (so maybe 50 grams) of refrigerant not an entire kilo.
Don't fuck around with the sealed system unless you've the proper training. It's not rocket science but there are any number of non-obvious ways for things to go wrong. R600a is (in)flammable, R134a decomposes into hydrogen fluoride when exposed to flame, and R410a is a blend of things so you can't really top it off.
But…
At least in the US kitchen refrigerators have moved to hydrocarbon refrigerants (R600a a.k.a. isobutane) which have a much lower global warming potential of around 3.3x that of CO2. Prior to that it was R134a, and I'm pretty sure R410a was mostly limited to HVAC applications. More to the point a modern refrigerator has on the order of a couple ounces (so maybe 50 grams) of refrigerant not an entire kilo.
Don't fuck around with the sealed system unless you've the proper training. It's not rocket science but there are any number of non-obvious ways for things to go wrong. R600a is (in)flammable, R134a decomposes into hydrogen fluoride when exposed to flame, and R410a is a blend of things so you can't really top it off.