All About Shopping
Regarding Air conditioners-Has anyone considered……………?
14Mar2008 Filed under: Air Conditioner Author: admin
ewr750 asked:
Freon is really bad for the environment.I believe newer systems use alcohol or some other.
We have 94 units in my condo complex. I see the repairman giving charges almost everyday for the last two weeks. If everyone has older units that are losing charge, and need to be re-charged every summer- isn’t this irresponsible?? even illegal? My auto AC has to be fixed also. I’ve been told there’s a law that they cannot simply keep re-charging it. This should apply to home AC as well. HOW CAN WE POLICE THIS? HOW CAN WE GET HOME OWNERS TO REPAIR OR REPLACE THEIR SYSTEMS instead of opting for a cheaper re-charge?
Freon is really bad for the environment.I believe newer systems use alcohol or some other.
We have 94 units in my condo complex. I see the repairman giving charges almost everyday for the last two weeks. If everyone has older units that are losing charge, and need to be re-charged every summer- isn’t this irresponsible?? even illegal? My auto AC has to be fixed also. I’ve been told there’s a law that they cannot simply keep re-charging it. This should apply to home AC as well. HOW CAN WE POLICE THIS? HOW CAN WE GET HOME OWNERS TO REPAIR OR REPLACE THEIR SYSTEMS instead of opting for a cheaper re-charge?
7 Responses to “Regarding Air conditioners-Has anyone considered……………?”
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Welcome to My Shopping Blog.
Browse the website for more info. If you don't find what you're looking for, please use the search function.
red
March 16th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Unfortunately, I think that the only way that some ACs will be replaced is if you go out on a limb and mention to a landlord that the unit is old and possibly illegal. In my own experience, I saw an ad in the paper for a sale that was going on, and I told my landlord that maybe he could get us a new one, since by such-and-such date (can’t remember it now), our AC wouldn’t be leal any more. Well, he of course didn’t listen to me, and I had to wait unyil the 20+ year old AC broke before I got my new one. I wish you good luck, and I think you should be commended for being environmentally concious, we have to save the Earth one person at a time, after all. I just think it’s sad that to some, money will always be the bottom line. Good luck to you.
toledoengineer3
March 18th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
It is illegal to manufacture Freon in the US. Thats why we switched to R-134a. Its safer for the environment.
But just because it’s illegal to mnfg, doesnt mean it’s illegal to refill. I’m not sure if you’re allowed to import it either. But it would be best to look up your local law on it, to see if your state allows refilling. In autos, though, they cannot refill Freon, they MUST change over the system to R-134a.
In all actuallity, propane is really one of the best coolants to use (I’ve seen this in Engineering textbooks and read about it in a few scientific articles). But the problem is that if the closed a/c system developes a leak, then…well…boom. Even though not much propane would actually be in the a/c system, this could do some damage.
The best way to police this is to make BUYING Freon illegal. That way, service repairmen cannot legally buy any more of it and would have to extinguish their current stock. But that would also cause millions of low income households to have a relatively large replacement cost for a new unit, when the old one stops working. So, what politician would want to propose that legislation and potentially anger the low-income vote? It would have to be a newly elected sentator, so they have 5yrs left to clean up their public image.
afratta437
March 19th, 2008 at 7:36 am
freon or CFC’s are NOT bad for the enviroment!
this was a lie, similar to global warming, to make people buy new a/c units!
BY THAT LEGISLATION 99% OF ANY MACHINES THAT PRODUCED COOLING WERE MADE OBSOLETE.
a/c still use “freon” just different chemicals, which are less thermodynamically efficient than the old cfc’s based type. not only that, they reuire lubricating oils that are more expensive because the original oils aren’t compatible
if a repairman charges 1 a day for 2 weeks, that’s 14 units. what’s that? maybe 20%?
next year 14 different units break. again less than 20%?
they aren’t necessarilly recharging the same ones over and over.
furthermore, when an a/c unit needs to be repaired, it doesn’t always need freon.
so just because a tech is working on a unit, it doesn’t mean it needs charged.
some units have gone 30 years w/ freon being added.
new systems are DOUBLE what they were 2 years ago. why? energy standards were raised.
so your $2,000 (USD) replacement becaomes $4,000.
you wanna pay that or $300. to fix the leak and recharge it?
it used to be more ecnomically justifiable to people to change them when they were cheaper.
the 10/12 seer units still saved power over older models (there are still a lot in use that are in the 6-8 range) and they were still “reasonably” priced. now that’s out the window.
would you buy a new car because you had a flat tire?
people just can’t afford it as easily as they used too. and you can thank people who “police this” and want to save the earth for it.
FWIW, window units are the most inefficent of a/c units. they are still in the 6-10 SEER range- compared to 13 minimum for central air.
Dr Schmoo
March 21st, 2008 at 8:50 am
Lead by example! Give up YOUR energy-hog lifestyle and go without air conditioning, cooking, transportation and electronic entertainment. WHen it gets hot, go live in a pond, walk the twenty miles to work, (taking a horse or a cow to work is cheating becaust they are farting and destroying the environment THAT way), eay your food raw and find a wind-up non-electric computer to make your posts on Yahoo with. Enough policing already! Didnt we have enough of that with Stalin, Hitler and Co.?
FredHH
March 21st, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Newer (appx 1995 and newer) home AC systems use R22 or R134a. These are considered to be essentially environmentally inert. (no effect on ozone layer and aren’t greenhouse gasses)
Auto AC systems have also gone to R134a (appx 1997 was the last time R-12 “Freon” was put in a new car for sale in the US)
You could use Propane as a replacement for the refrigerant in an AC system… it just requires the pump to be changed and different size flow restriction between the high pressure and low pressure sides. (and a leak would mean your house could explode) Propane decomposes in sunlight… EPA approved disposal of waste propane is to vent it to the air.
R-12 has been illegal to make or import to the US for long enough… that its most likely that the systems you are seeing being recharged don’t use it. So.. the environmental impact of the recharges is probably ZERO.
*************
Its not very smart to just keep recharging an AC system that leaks rather than fixing the leak… It gets expensive to keep recharging.
iberius
March 25th, 2008 at 9:04 am
freon is NOT bad for the environment. this was a scam put on by dupont in the eighties because the patent for R12 freon was running out. their monopoly on freon was comming to an end. so congress obeyed senator pete dupont in making R12 illegal, while dupont had secured the patent on a new freon, R134. so dupont still has the monopoly on freon. this is why pete dupont, one of the richest men in america wastes his life in the senate. it is his job for the dupont company.
jake
March 28th, 2008 at 4:14 am
they have been blaming freon for years..I’m a retire air conditioning mechanic..I had to go to school and be certified in 1993..it depends on the size of the leak..he’s supposed to repair the leak and not just dump freon into the unit..I thought that we resolved this problem..freon is recycled so I don’t know what the fuss is about