It doesn't seem like a decade has went by since the Clean Air Act of 1990 was passed that placed stringent restrictions on CFC- and HFC-based refrigerants.
What began as a flurry to convert and replace CFC chillers has slowed to a trickle. A report by the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) issued earlier this year says that CFC chiller replacement and conversion dipped in 1999 to 3,085, down from 4,241 units in 1998.
At first glance, that dip is amazing, considering that the 1995 Montreal Protocol banned production of these Class II substances by the end of that year. According to ARI's report, of the estimated 80,000 CFC chillers in existence in the early 1990s, 61% of those have not been converted or replaced. Since the ban, 31,516 CFC chillers have been taken out of service. ARI estimates that there will be 517 conversions and 3,271 replacements of CFC-based chillers in 2000. The survey concludes that it will take 10 more years to eliminate CFC chillers totally. This is good news for the manufacturers, as demand will hold steady over the next decade as the inevitable occurs.