Heating, cooling and beyond
If your air conditioner operates with R-22 refrigerant (freon) & you have been charging it up every spring or summer, this year that will cost you quite a bit more to do. In less than twelve months, the cost of freon has tripled in price. The vast majority of air conditioners & heat pumps manufactured before Jan 1, 2010 feature R-22 refrigerant. The US Dept of Energy has long since deemed this refrigerant environmentally unfriendly & required all manufacturers (as of, Jan, 2010) to engineer their new units to accommodate R-410A (puron)refrigerant because it is environmentally friendly. When it comes time to replace your AC, you now have no choice but to switch to R-410A based units. Our recommendation is if your unit is at least ten years old & needs a shot of R-22 refrigerant, forgoing that & replacing the unit is something you should strongly consider.
