The Future of Refrigerants is Here With Opteon XL41

HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs

Bryan Orr

Business, Education, Careers, Self-improvement

4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this podcast from AHR 2023, Brandon Marshall from Chemours and Chris Forth from JCI talk about the future of refrigerants and Opteon XL41 (R-454B).

Refrigerant regulations are changing to pave the way for lower-GWP refrigerants, but M1 is also in full swing. M1 refers to the U.S. Department of Energy's implementation of the new efficiency standards for A/C units and heat pumps (SEER2, EER2, etc.). These standards changed the equipment testing procedure to match field conditions more closely.

Opteon is the next-generation portfolio of low-GWP refrigerants for Chemours as a successor to the legacy refrigerants in the Freon product line. These refrigerants are a response to the HFC phasedown outlined in the AIM Act. JCI chose to use Opteon XL41, an HFO, for its equipment due to Opteon XL41's low GWP compared to R-32 and because of the similar operating pressures and temperatures to R-410A.

A2Ls are a permanent change in the industry, and their safety considerations and best practices are here to stay. However, even though A2Ls are more flammable than A1 refrigerants, they are nowhere near as flammable as A3 refrigerants. Just about any refrigerant can propagate flame under the right conditions (including A1s), so A2Ls are only a little bit more flammable than those.

Brandon, Chris, and Bryan also discuss:

Brandon and Chris's industry experience
The transition from CFCs to HCFCs to HFCs
Refrigerant reclamation
Upcoming GWP limits
Hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs)
A2L refrigerant product testing
Staying up to date on A2L training resources
Some of the prominent flammable refrigerant trainers
Smuggled and counterfeit refrigerants

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of the HVAC School podcast is brought to you by our partners.
0:08.0	Field Peace and Field Peace.com. Field Piece makes the entire suite of job link probes, everything from monometers to
0:15.9	Induct Cyclometers, line temperature clamps with rapid rail technology. Once you use the
0:21.3	Field Piece JobLink probes for checking the system, you're not going to go back to anything else.
0:26.0	It is what we use in our company.
0:28.0	We've been teaching it at the school and that students really love it.
0:31.0	Even people who are resistant to probes,
0:33.2	even those who like typical analog type gauges
0:36.4	because it's what we're used to.
0:37.4	I think once you try them, you're gonna love them.
0:39.2	That's the job link probes from field piece,
0:41.8	field piece. Field Piece.com.
0:43.6	Refrigeration Technologies at Refrigerate Tech.com.
0:47.6	Refrigeration Technologies makes so many great things for our industry, chemicals, and
0:52.3	products.
0:53.0	One of the new ones is Nylog White.
0:56.0	Nylog White works with gas and air and water,
0:59.0	and it works great.
1:00.0	It's a type of a pipe dope, but it is a space age cutting edge pipe
1:04.5	dope that goes on really smooth and does a great job doesn't make a mess.
1:08.7	That's Nylog White.
1:10.5	You also if you haven't tried out their new venom packs, highly concentrated cleaners and
	...

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