The HVAC industry has gone through refrigerant transitions before. Some may remember the move from R-11 to R-123, R-12 to R-134a, or, more recently, R-22 to R-410A. These progressions largely occurred to meet requirements designed to remove ozone-depleting refrigerants from HVAC systems. Future refrigerant conversions will likely be driven by global standards focused on reducing global warming. To meet these requirements, manufacturers will be expected to utilize refrigerants with low global warming potentials (GWPs).
The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol is an international agreement designed to phase down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) with higher GWPs, such as R-410A. While the current U.S. administration has failed to ratify the amendment, North American legislators and regulators continue to draft future GWP-driven phasedowns. However, the upcoming low-GWP refrigerant transition is poised to be much different than its predecessors. In previous refrigerant transitions, all HVAC manufacturers transitioned to the same refrigerant, such as R-22 and R-410A. But, this time, not all HVAC manufacturers have announced which lower GWP refrigerant they intend to use.