Birdnow's Aviary

May 12, 2023

Government's War on Air Conditioning

Ken Elder

Freon R-22

A Public Service Announcement

The Federal Government, in its infinite wisdom, has created an extremely expensive dilemma for residential and business occupants. Essentially, they banned, effective 2020, the production and import of Freon R-22 which has been used by manufacturers of AC units and Heat Pumps for many years. R-22 was a very successful refrigerant for decades as it was easily manufactured and had excellent thermal properties.

According to the EPA, there are an estimated 13 million residential air conditioning units in the United States that still use R-22. This number is expected to decrease over time as older units are replaced, but it is still a significant number. As a result, homeowners with R-22 units WILL face higher costs to repair or replace their units.

For example, five years ago the price of R-22 was approximately $5 a pound. Service companies are now charging retail up to $100 per pound. A typical residential unit requires 10-15 pounds of R-22 and hence the gas alone will cost over $1000 if it needs to be totally replaced because of very common leaks. That is in addition to any other service parts and labor that might be charged. The units installed have been in service for 6-15 years and are prone to leaks and other breakdowns.

A new unit using one of the newer and cheaper refrigerants is probably the best plan forward but that is going to be costly ($5,000 to $12,000) depending on size and with a massive refit coming the backlogs might be lengthy…..Plan Ahead!

Tim adds:

The Feds have made the importation of anything using R22 illegal. Recently they sentenced a man for smuggling it in. This will only get worse.

We have not had a problem with the "hole in the ozone" for some time, and in fact there is a lot of reason to believe it never had anything to do with freon anyway. It appears to be a cyclical thing in Antarctica.

And even NASA's radical Goddard Institute has admitted that the ozone in Antarctica is recovering.

So why launch this Jihad on freon?

Seems to me they want us to be too hot in summer, and thus we'll be more amenable to global warming claims and willing to allow them to take action to "address" the faux emergency.

Any way you slice it air conditioning has made our modern life possible. Few people lived in Florida before a/c. Ditto Texas, or Louisiana, or Mississipppi. It was too hot and sweltering. There is a reason why the Confederacy had a much lower population than the Union at the time of the Civil War. Now the Sun Belt is the place to be - and it's growing. We have air conditioning to thank.

So, the Left, in their eternal quest for power, wants to make air conditioning obsolete, or at least too expensive for the hoi poloi so people have to move back to the cold and dreary Democrat- controlled cities in the north. And since they are also restricting the use of things like natural gas, these places will be cold and dark and utterly miserable. But, heh! Americans DESERVE that because we were too successful and lived too well! Time for the Third World to get it's share and for us to pay the penalty for advancing civilization!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:32 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 563 words, total size 4 kb.

1 About ten tears ago my central a/c, which was original when the house was built in 1975, finally failed. It had required a freon recharge just once in the 25 years we owned the house. One recharge in 38 years of service. The new unit has required a recharge every year since it was installed. Seven different service companies cannot find a leak, but every spring we have to pay $250 to $300 to have freon added because it is blowing warm air instead of cold. Is this a great country, or what?

Posted by: Bill H at May 12, 2023 07:58 AM (Q7br2)

2 That sucks Bill. Yeah; they don't make 'em like they used to!

My central air unit went out years ago. I had older window a/c units and they work perfectly. I acquired a new one though and it shot craps after just a couple of years. Wound up getting my old one back (I had let my brother have it) and it has done faithful service since.

We can thank this whole globalism business for that. Sure, stuff is cheaper (well, not really even so much that in many cases) but it is designed to fail. That's how they can get you to keep buying. Build it just goo d enough so you have to come back for more and more. Planned obsolescence, they call it.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at May 13, 2023 08:46 AM (reE4p)

3 Interesting that the gummint is making war on A/C -- Washington DC would be unlivable without it.

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at May 13, 2023 10:38 PM (7Hd0c)

4 Well I'm all for that Dana! I say we ban a/c in DC now and let the jerks swelter.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at May 14, 2023 09:02 AM (U9fSZ)

5 While we're at it, let's ban gas AND electric ranges in DC, in the White House, and mandate that all cooking for State dinners be done in microwave ovens. That'll really show that we're a #1 nation, right?

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at May 15, 2023 12:10 AM (QlyGH)

6 OR on a wood stove!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at May 15, 2023 08:34 AM (qQNCC)

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