According to environmental extremists, air-conditioning has been a disaster for the environment.
Secretary of State, John Kerry said, “Air-conditioners and refrigerators pose as big a threat to life on the planet as the threat of terrorism.”
Kerry made this claim because hydrofluorocarbons (HCF) refrigerants are a source of green house gas emissions that, according to extreme environmentalists, threaten the climate.
Gina McCarthy, EPA Administrator, said, during negotiations in Vienna last month, “[A] global deal would match new EPA regulations to ban HFCs in the United States and promote alternative chemicals for use in appliances.”
Eliminating HCFs would create a problem for homeowners and businesses.
At present, HCFs that harm the Ozone layer are no longer being used in air conditioning units or refrigerators. Freon has been outlawed.
New HCFs, that don’t harm the Ozone layer, are used today. All air-conditioning units in the United States use these new HCFs. Here are some examples of refrigerants currently in use:
R-410A
- Often referred to by a brand name such as Puron®, Suva® 9100, or Genetron® AZ-20®
- It is a hydro-fluorocarbon (HFC) that does not contribute to ozone depletion
R-407C
- Often referred to by a brand name such as Suva® 407C or Genetron® 407C
- R-407C is a hydro-fluorocarbon (HFC) that does not contribute to ozone depletion
- It provides the simplest conversion from R-22, i.e., Freon, due to its similar pressures
R-134a
- Widely used in many air conditioning and refrigeration systems globally
- It is a hydro-fluorocarbon (HFC) that does not contribute to ozone depletion
Eliminating HCFs will affect all Americans, and increase their costs unnecessarily.
Homeowners, automobile owners and businesses will all be affected.
It should be noted that HCFs are used because they are the most efficient low-cost chemical available for operating refrigeration units, including air-conditioners. They are also safe, and don’t present a fire hazard.
There are other chemicals that can be used as refrigerants.
For example, ammonia is an effective low-cost refrigerant, but it isn’t safe. An ammonia leak will drive people from their homes. As a youngster, I remember having to evacuate our apartment building because a refrigerator using ammonia in an apartment above us leaked. Chloroform can also be used as a refrigerant, but it has a major downside.
Automobiles will shift to HFO-1234yf in 2017, but older cars will find it increasingly difficult, and probably more expensive, to find R134a, the currently approved refrigerant for automobiles.
CO2 can also be used as a refrigerant, but it operates at much higher pressures, at over 1450 psi, or ten times the pressure of current air-conditioning units. CO2 as a refrigerant will result in more heavily constructed, and more expensive air-conditioning units.
Even if a new refrigerant is developed for home air-conditioning units, new units will probably operate at higher pressures, requiring more expensive components resulting in more costly new air-conditioning units. Homeowners will find they will have to replace their existing air-conditioning units with new units that comply with the new EPA regulations when supplies of currently approved HCFs run out.
Europeans won’t feel the impact of doing away with HCFs, since only a small percentage of the population uses air-conditioning. Europe is requiring CO2 to be used as the refrigerant.
Americans will bear the brunt of any ban on HCFs.
Older refrigerators will have to be scrapped.
Think of people living in Florida, or other states that have high summer temperatures, such as Arizona, who will be required, at some point, to buy new, more expensive air-conditioning units.
Kerry says air-conditioning is a greater threat to the world than ISIS. Tell that to homeowners in Florida and the desert southwest.
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Nothing to Fear, Chapter 14, An Impossible Objective, explains why it’s impossible to cut CO2 emissions 80% without destroying America’s standard of living.
Nothing to Fear is available from Amazon and some independent book sellers.
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/1miBhXy
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