The signs of fall approaching have come. The lush green leaves have begun to show their age, green lawns have gone dormant and some cooler evenings have arrived. Make no mistake, some warm and humid weather is yet to come and there are some of us that will have air conditioner breakdowns and have to decide on buying a new air conditioner.
There have been big changes in air conditioning and huge changes yet to come. The recent federally mandate increase in air conditioning efficiency made air conditioners more expensive, but was largely invisible to the public. The next big change is coming in about one year and it is huge.
Air conditioners run on Freonâ, or so many people think. Details and facts about it are boring but lets call it refrigerant for this blog. Refrigerant comes in many types and what type is used depends on if we are cooling the air in your home, in your car, in your refrigerator or in a food store freezing things or cooling beer or making ice cubes. There is no one size fits all purposes type of “Freon”.
About ten years ago, in preparation for next year, a new refrigerant that is ozone friendly was introduced. It replaced the old favorite R22, and is called R410A. Some call it Puronâ. Call it anything you like but chemically it is R410A and air conditioners that use it are offered by all popular makers of furnaces and air conditioners.
What does this boring information mean to you? At the end of next year, air conditioners that use the old favorite refrigerant, R22, can no longer be made. R22 is also mandated to be produced less and less. This means that R22 to recharge your air conditioner will become more and more expensive! Supply and demand.
So we have a choice when we need to buy a new air conditioner now. Will it use the soon to be obsolete R22 or the refrigerant of the future, R410A? It’s like buying a car or truck and deciding if it runs on gasoline or diesel.
I work in the wholesale distribution end of heating and air conditioning. We sell several different brands of furnaces and air conditioners in many states so have a good idea of what’s going on out there. Some dealers are selling their customers only R410A air conditioners. Some still sell R22. Often this is because the price of the equipment is still a little less than R410A and because they are not comfortable with the new R410A.
So my first point is if you are going to buy a new air conditioner for your house, buy one that uses R410A. The only reason that I could see to buy R22 equipment is if you are selling your house soon or short-term cost is more important than long-term expense. But wait. There is more!
A recent blog encouraged new building codes to prepare for the increased use of electricity to heat our homes and fuel our future electric cars at home. When you buy a new air conditioner, you can go a step further into the future and buy a hybrid air conditioner that can also heat your home. This is called a heat pump.
Heat pumps have been around for many years but the notion that they are for warmer southern states have held back the popularity of them here, until recently. I won’t bore you with the technical stuff that excites guys like me. The facts are that heat pumps are air conditioners that don’t only work a few weeks in the summer but also work year around heating your house too!
Heat pumps can heat your house at times for less than the most efficient natural gas furnace. The savings can be greater if you heat with oil or propane. True, it won’t keep the house warm by itself at colder temperatures, typically below 30 to 40 degrees, but an often-overlooked fact makes them attractive even in places like Alaska.
In our area, if you count the number of heating hours spent above the 30 to 40 degree range, you will find that it is around one half of our heating season! That means your furnace would run around half of what it otherwise would.
True, heat pumps don’t create heat for free, but the trend is for fossil fuels to increase in price greater than that for electricity. An air conditioner that you buy now will be there on average for fifteen or twenty years. So think about fuel cost trends and a heat pump installed now makes good sense.
How much will a heat pump save you? Many dealers don’t like to sell them because many customers want a figure written down on this. Energy prices are very dynamic and there is no crystal ball to assure what your savings will be. However, experts agree that buying a heat pump now is a forward-looking choice.
Whatever you decide, make sure it uses R410A instead of R22 refrigerant!
