Handled correctly, many installers have already realised that R410A refrigerant has some excellent benefits to offer. However, it’s being portrayed within the air conditioning industry as potentially dangerous to use or, it’s being labelled as the only efficient refrigerant thats available - which simply isn’t true.
Whilst R410A can provide some small advantages in efficiency, it is technology itself that is the largest contributor towards the steady increase in ever important COP’s. A good comparison can be made with cars and fuel for example; The fact that a car can provide more miles per gallon today than say, five years ago, is due to technology advances in the car rather than the fuel.

A Brief History of Refrigerant.

The same is true of direct expansion systems, with the need to focus on efficiency as a whole, not simply the type of refrigerant. How the refrigerant is used is of paramount importance and good system installation is crucial.
The skills required today, are no different to those that have always been required and although the equipment and subsequent numbers may differ, the need for good practice remains the same.

Ozone depleting substances (ODS) have been used in many products which take advantages of their physical properties. For example, Chloro Flouro Carbons ( CFC’s ), have commonly been used as aerosol propellants and refrigerants.

However, since highlighting that the chlorine in CFC’s attributes to the demise of the ozone layer, the ‘Montreal protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer’ was negotiated and signed by 24 countries and the ‘EU’ in 1987. The protocol calls for all parties to scale down the use of CFC’s halons and other man made ODS.