Knowledge/Refrigerants
Refrigerants and the transition
What's actually banned, what's still legal, and what the registrations say about where this is heading.
Everything in this section
- R410A: what's actually banned, and what isn'tThe phase-down limits bulk gas, not equipment. The equipment ban is narrow and ducted is exempt, the opposite of what a lot of contractors have been told.
- R290 and R454B: where they actually are in the marketR290 air conditioning here is almost all portables, not splits, and the reason is electrical law, not refrigerant law. R454B has only just started arriving.
- Which refrigerant GWP figures count in AustraliaAustralian law uses the IPCC AR4 2007 GWP figures. New Zealand uses AR5. A GWP that doesn't say which set it's from can't back a claim here.
- A1, A2L, A2 and A3: what the classes actually meanHow each safety class is tested, how flammable each one is, and why propane charges are capped in grams while R32 can run to kilos.
- Why topping up a leaking system isn't legal hereFind a leak and all the refrigerant has to come out before the repair. That's the code for every refrigerant, blend or pure. No exceptions.
- Prohibited charging, and why you can't go up in GWPSince January 2020 you can't charge equipment with a gas of higher GWP than the one it was designed for. It applies whether or not you hold a permit.
- Refrigerant recovery, and the tools A2L won't shareEvery recovery rule in one place, the equipment standards behind them, and why your A1 recovery kit generally isn't fit for A2L gas.
- Identify refrigerant by the label, never by the colourAustralia doesn't use the American whole-body colour system. Cylinders are white or galvanised with a coloured band, and four common gases aren't charted.
- Glide, and why blends can only be charged as liquidPure refrigerants can go in as vapour or liquid. Under the Australian code, every blend goes in as liquid, glide or not. R513A is where people get caught.
- R744 CO2 is a different world: 63 bar at 25 degreesAbove 31°C, CO2 won't condense, so transcritical is normal running for a CO2 heat pump water heater here. Ordinary HVAC gauges aren't rated anywhere near it.
Rather just ask someone?
Kevin has been in this industry for 30 years. If the answer isn't here, or you want it applied to a job you're quoting, have a chat.