Here we go guys. A third and fourth refrigerant is being introduced to the market. Not here in the US yet. But one cool thing here in America is we always kind of have a snapshot of our future when we look at what some of the European countries are doing and what I mean by that is. When it comes to the heating and air industry, a lot of our lawmakers will sometimes be a little behind allowing us to see the future by seeing what some of these other countries are doing. For example, 410A was phased out in some of these other countries years ago and so during the making of this video, R410a is being phased down. here in America We are seeing some of the manufacturers come out with different solutions and up to this point most of the manufacturers have been signing on with one of two refrigerants saying that this is the refrigerant that we're going to use when 410A is gone completely. Those two refrigerants have been R32 and R454b both of them having a lower gwp than 410A and both of them being better. Solutions When it comes to the the environment, now you might say, well, why is there two? Why? Why is it there? Just one? Why is everybody signing on with different refrigerants and I Think there's a couple reasons for that. I've been behind closed doors on a few conversations that you know I'm not really going to get into the details, but ultimately it sounds like some of the manufacturers have patents on different refrigerants and some of them are not willing to be monopolized by, you know, being pigeonholed into using one refrigerant or another. So some homeowners, some consumers are saying hey, you know this kind of sucks We feel like we're you know, not getting a good option here and I would actually agree with that. I've said in other videos that I think that it's all about money I think that a lot of these manufacturers are making decisions based on what's best for them, what's based on their bottom line, and not even attempting to come up with a permanent solution I've had comments on some of my videos where folks are saying well, Josh it's not all about money, it's about the environment. But my argument to that is, if it was about the environment, why are we not looking at some of these refrigerants that we already know that are better for the environment than the ones being introduced now. So now, move moving forward. Let's get off of all that and talk about what we're seeing in Europe and these two new refrigerants we're seeing be introduced in Europe and possibly will be introduced here in years to come. And so the two refrigerants being introduced right now by Daikin Europe in Belgium are r454c and r290 and I'm going to go through each one of them what I know about them now I will say I'm not a chemist I've I've had people tell me the pros and cons I'm that's not my goal here to try to tell you oh well, this one's better for this reason and this one's better for that reason. And I don't even think homeowners really care about that I think homeowners want to just know that they're coming up with a good Solution That's good for their bottom line and ultimately, if it's going to be good for the environment, why are we not going with a better solution to start with? So let's start with R454c in comparison to the two refrigerants being introduced here in America with the phase out of 410A. So one of the big things they talk about with these refrigerants a lot of times is something called Gwp global warming potential and it's a number that they'll attach to the refrigerant saying the lower this number is the better it is for the environment and so this has nothing to do with. you know, years ago, we phased that R22 and several other refrigerants because they were depleting the ozone. Gwp has nothing to do with that. In fact, R22 had a lower Gwp than 410A. So let's go through this: 410A Refrigerant has a Gwp rating of 2088., R32 has a Gwp rating of 677 and R454b has a DWP rating of 466. this newest refrigerant, r454c has a Gwp rating of 148, so it's lower than 410A. It's lower than the two refrigerants that are being introduced to our Market As we speak, it is still an A2l refrigerant, meaning it's mildly flammable and that's no different than the two refrigerants R32 and R454b that are being introduced to our market. We've done other videos on that we've talked about. You know how flammable they are and should you be concerned, as long as you have a qualified professional taking care of all of this, you have other gas appliances in your home with open flames and as long as they're done safely, then you should be okay. I Think the real risk in a lot of that falls on us the technicians. meaning we need to take steps that we weren't taking before to make sure things are safe for us and the home. The other interesting thing about our 454c the newest one is the fact that it is listed as a replacement refrigerant for R22. So years ago when we had R22 this is one of the refrigerants that could have replaced that a lot of refrigerants were being used as a replacement or a drop in refrigerant with the phase out of R22 years ago now I have not laid hands on this so I don't know this for sure, but I can tell you that if it was a replacement for R22 then that would mean to me that the pressures should be lower. When you were comparing R22 and R410a, you were seeing a significantly higher pressure working pressure with R410 and that came with its own set of challenges. So if this newest refrigerant has lower pressures like R22 did to me, that's a good thing. That means you should have less wear and tear on the system, if nothing else, less springing of leaks if you will. And so Dyke in Europe is launching these products and most of them are going to be what's called air-to-water heat pumps. Now that's not something we see a lot here in the U.S But I've heard some experts say that we're going to see it more in the future. We of course do have a lot of hydronic heating type systems and of course the old school boilers, but Europe does have a lot of products that we don't see a lot of here in the US. Now according to this article, companies like Mitsubishi have already been producing products with this new refrigerant, and I think they're doing the same thing that we are, except they're a little further ahead. they're trying different refrigerants, they're trying to figure out what's going to be the best long-term solution here, and we're going to talk at the end of this video Why that is actually a good thing. Now, let's talk about the fourth refrigerant. So the the four. Right now that we're talking about in this video, there's a few others out there, but these are seem to be the main four. we've got R32 that's been used for years. Over in Europe you've got R454b, which is the one that seems that most of the manufacturers here in America are signing on to use. With this phase out of 410A Refrigerant, you've got R454c that we just talked about. and now this newest one is called R290. What is R290? Ultimately, it's propane. It's highly flammable and it's been used in products before. It's what they call an extremely pure propane. So I'm not really sure what that means in comparison to like when you go get a tank of propane for your gas grill. I Can only assume that means it's just a much more cleaner, much more pure propane and you shouldn't have as much junk in it I guess. But we've seen propane used in refrigeration and air conditioning before. A lot of RV type systems Across America right now have propane being used as a refrigerant in those systems. Now you might say, Well, good grief. Josh I Wasn't particularly thrilled about mildly flammable refrigerants being used in my home. Now you're telling me that they're using propane. A very highly flammable refrigerant. Why are they doing this? And the main reason is it has a very low Gwp rating of only three. We're gonna keep a close watch on this. as I said. Europe always seems to be a little ahead of us. We can always kind of use them as sort of a snapshot of our future. At least that's how it's been in the past. We're usually not quick to make those changes until we kind of see what's going on, until laws are changed and so on. But as I said earlier in the video I think that this is a probably a good thing for our Market I Think it's a good thing to let the European countries kind of be guinea pigs. Hey, y'all try those products. How's it going for you? How's everything working out? You know what's good, what's not. It's actually a good thing for us that they're a little ahead of us and they're trying different things. A lot of these manufacturers are trying to figure this out. They're not just trying new refrigerants, but they're trying new technologies and this can only be good for the consumer. At the end of the day, as we've seen prices Skyrocket over the last couple years with Heating and Air Products, it's good to let other countries figure this stuff out. let these companies go into those countries and try these products out. So that way, hopefully when the next law comes out and they ban something, we get more of a permanent solution, more of a better product for the consumer at the end of the day. What's scary about some of this stuff though is as we see more and more products being introduced to the market as DIY products products that homeowners can buy themselves and install themselves, this might not be a step in that direction. This is something that you're going to want. Somebody that knows what they're doing. Not an electrician that you know can buy the unit and put it in for you and trying to figure figure it out or not. A homeowner who's pretty handy who took a class or read some stuff online you're going to want Pros that know what they're doing doing a lot of this stuff I Know a lot of folks feel that way anyway, but you know I get comments all the time from folks saying well, hey, I installed my own unit. It's really not that hard that may change. With some of this stuff coming out, it seems like the better it is for the environment, the less safe it is to handle. It's sort of like the foods I eat the better it tastes, the worse it is for me to eat it right? But anyway, let me know your thoughts. Please comment down below. Smash that like button that helps so much. We're gonna keep an eye on this. We're going to let you know if anything else changes. But right now here in America this doesn't change much. We're still going to see 410A phase down. We're still going to see products introduced over the next couple years with these new refrigerants, but maybe just maybe we might see some of these refrigerants being introduced to our Market as well, especially if they're a better long-term solution than these refrigerants that we're already seeing introduced. It'll be interesting to see how this all works out. Thanks for watching Hit that subscribe button! We'll see you next time.