New regulations mean new refrigerants for HVAC, coolers and more.
By Myrna Traylor
As of Jan. 1, 2025, U.S. manufacturers and service providers will begin using new refrigerants for HVAC systems, refrigerators and other appliances to comply with EPA regulations and international agreements to restrict substances with high global warming potential (GWP). The American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (AIM Act) was enacted to ensure that US businesses reduce all uses of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 85% by 2036. This law reflects the U.S. commitment to the Montreal Protocol and the amendment to it signed in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2016, that sets out goals to stop depletion of the ozone layer and reduce production and use of greenhouse gases.
As part of multifaceted efforts to meet its greenhouse emissions goals, high-GWP refrigerants, including some HFCs, will be phased out and new refrigerants will be used in new equipment. FMs and their service teams will be able to use HFCs in existing equipment but will likely face some price increases as those materials become scarcer.
Adjusting to New Materials
While some refrigeration will be shifting to CO2 as a refrigerant (and some small systems will rely on propane), the new class of refrigerants for HVAC systems and heat pumps are called A2Ls. The biggest difference between A2Ls and the current refrigerants (which are A1s) is that the A2Ls are rated as “lower flammability” by ASHRAE 34. Fortunately, the material won’t ignite from a stray spark or lit cigarette, according to testing. However, “when you're dealing with a flammable product, it doesn't matter how flammable it is, you will have to act with caution,” explained Hara Prager, Director at Brinco Mechanical Management Services, Inc.
“In light of flammability, we anticipate seeing regulatory changes in how technicians handle this type of refrigerant, how it is transported to your sites (i.e., which tunnels and bridges can be used by technicians), and how it can be stored on location,” she explains. “New HVAC units will also be required to have leak detection sensors installed, which, in the event of a leak, will shut down the unit’s compressor and energize the fan to disperse any refrigerant. Any retailer storing a large amount of A2L refrigerants will need to be mindful of any federal and local building code changes that could result in a need to reconfigure the storage space to comply with storage and ventilation requirements.”
Preparing for Changes
As FMs try to navigate these changes, they should ensure they have a good plan in place. First, Prager said, to stay ahead of the changes, FMs must know what their systems are running. “In the industry, we anticipate extended lead time to get A2L-compatible equipment due to the retooling of manufacturing factories, so to prepare, we recommend taking a serious look at your assets. Make sure you have a complete asset list — know what equipment you have, what type of refrigerant that equipment takes and the equipment’s condition. From there, you can work to create a proactive unit replacement program that aligns with your budget.”
The advantage of planning, of course, is to try to avoid having to cope with a major breakdown or replacement on an emergency basis. “Lead time [to get new equipment] might be a little longer than you would like,” Prager said. “If you're a smaller box store or a food purveyor where you have one unit, the impact of having that one unit down is going to be far greater than if you're a bigger space with three or four units.”
Prager also recommends bringing your supplier partners into the planning process. “Work with your vendor partner to assess which units based on their boots-on-the-ground knowledge should be slated for replacement based on condition and repair history, and work towards creating a proactive replacement program in advance so you're not dealing with catastrophic equipment failures reactively.”
In the Field
Grocery store FMs will face this transition on several fronts—with HVAC, refrigeration systems, walk-ins and freezers. Jonathan Tan is the Co-founder of the Ratio Institute, an advisory group that assists grocery stores with sustainability. Grocers, whether they are in an independent regional chain or a big box chain, “spend about half of their utility costs on refrigeration,” he said. “Most of their products are refrigerated, frozen or kept at some desirable temperature, and so it's a big portion of a store's operations. Upgrading the systems could be an opportunity to benefit your store, both from a profitability and food-waste reduction perspective.”
When moving to lower-GWP refrigerants, Tan said his group works hard to “meet the retailer where they are. It's not practical for all grocers to rip out every single bit of their equipment and install brand-new equipment that doesn't use HFCs. In an ideal world, you would. But the cost of doing that is expensive—the crunch on materials and labor and will only get worse as we get closer to the 2029 and 2036 which are major deadlines for the AIM Act.
“We have a net present value calculator that helps stores put in the different inputs for their specific situation,” Tan continued. “How much capital does it cost? How much of your equipment is still on your balance sheet? Are you still depreciating these things? We estimate improved operational and maintenance costs. We look at how all those things stack up and then help guide them to what makes the most sense for them.”
New Equipment, New Technician Training
Manufacturers and service providers are gearing up for this change as well. Richard Lord, Senior Fellow, Carrier Corporation, has seen previous changeovers and knows there will be further refrigerant changes in the future. “The industry spent close to $6 million in research to prove that [the new refrigerants] are safe, and we did a lot of the testing,” he said. “We've had them in field trial now for nearly two years with no problems at all. We may have to find yet another refrigerant for 2034 to comply with Kigali to use even lower-GWP refrigerants.”
ConnexFM HFC Toolkit
The HFC Toolkit, a resource developed by the ConnexFM Food and Beverage Council, led by Prager and Tan, serves as a valuable guide for approaching your changeover process. “We're going to see regulation changes post-2025, from building codes to transportation codes to how A2Ls are handled and stored,” Prager says. The HFC Toolkit has a decision tree, designed to help FMs and operations directors navigate the change to A2L refrigerants while making thoughtful plans based on each unique situation and available data.
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