No good with faces...

Heat-pumps, short-cuts and make-up

Hey Folks,

This time of year, I really start to miss living in the tropics. I dislike the cold. It gets in my bones, and I can’t shake it until this place starts to warm again in April. I’m all for the idea of hibernation.

This week I was planning an in-depth analysis of the recent report from the IEA on heat-pumps. However, with the cold slowing my brain, I’ll leave the heavy lifting for another edition. In short, my take is: heat pumps with natural refrigerants = good, heat pumps filled with synthetic refrigerants = not so good.

Bruce

Part of the reason I’m cold, is due to having an older heat-pump in our rental property, presently without any refrigerant in it. Ironic you might think.

Our landlord recently commissioned some renovation works, which involved temporary removal and re-installation of the heat-pump, keeping the refrigerant contained. This was fine in principal. Better than trying to work around it and risk damage and allowing the potent greenhouse gases out.

In preparation for winter however, I discover that the unit isn’t functioning. I carried out a non-invasive check of the system with some probes and the symptoms suggesting most, if not all the refrigerant, had leaked out. Likely from not being correctly re-installed and tested after the renovation. The emissions significant, which disheartens me more than the loss of heating.

Given the age of the heat-pump, I asked the landlord to kindly consider an upgrade, offset by the expected repair costs. Hoping to take advantage of some of the new natural, low-impact, refrigerant units now coming on the market. It was met with a Gallic shrug of sorts, i.e., No. Current circumstances making it difficult to press the matter further or self-fund the project.

So, we try and find a different contractor to repair the leak and re-fill the unit. Bruce, (not his real name), turns up with what appears to be decent servicing equipment. Confirms what I suspected, there being no refrigerant, and proceeds to hook up a bottle of replacement HFC refrigerant gas.

At this point I raise a finger. Hang on a sec. What about doing the leak check and repair first? The regulations clear on not putting gas back into a system with a leak. Again, I get a shrug, so I politely asked him to stop at which point he got a bit shirty. Did I want the gas topped-up or not? I told him I did not if he didn’t find the leak first. At which point he packed up and left, not before charging me his generous call-out fee.

He’d also given me the quote for the refrigerant on which he was making a hefty margin. Any other resident would have likely paid-up, had a system working for a while and then Bruce would be called out again to do some follow-ups. The lure of repeat business. Of course, not all are like this, but the good ones it seems are near impossible to get hold of.

It’s pretty much a given that the heat-pump market is going to grow tremendously, of which I’m supportive. Especially when it is replacing fossil heating. And for those unaware, many types of domestic heat-pumps also operate as an air-conditioner in reverse. The issues here also apply to AC installations.

Getting enough good contractors to install and maintain these units over the coming decades is going to be a challenge, and one that needs help solving. As more and more households move to heat-pumps, I suspect my experience won’t be an isolated occurrence. Both residents, and contractors, need to have greater awareness of the environmental (not just climate) impacts of the refrigerants in their equipment.

For me, it further reinforces the need to consider the refrigerants being used in heat-pumps and AC. The new standards for the use of low-GWP propane refrigerant (R290) lead to greater leak-tightness. The built-in, strict containment mechanisms required, add another layer of leak protection. Given the efficiency, plus R290’s simplicity as a refrigerant, for me it should be a no-brainer. With the caveat however, that near zero is not absolute zero, which is still where we need to get to. 

Not all new units being installed will use natural refrigerants. My other concern is a rapidly expanding heat-pump market using synthetic refrigerants is going to add to the already bulging banks of ‘waste’ refrigerant that we must deal with in the future.

As it stands, we are still waiting for the new contractor’s availability. Cold as I may be, I’d rather that than risk more refrigerant leaking to atmosphere…

Have you had similar experiences? Thoughts on the challenge? Feel free to drop a comment below or over on Linkedin

Where the f-gas hides

Each week I provide an example of where f-gases are utilsed, or used to produce something. They are present in more things than most people realise…

When I came across this week’s example, I went digging around my wife’s make-up cabinet to see if I could find some examples…

Photo by Raphael Lovaski

F-gases make their way into an array of cosmetics. Some examples being anti-aging creams, decorative cosmetics (i.e., make-up) sun protection and baby care.

How might you ask? Via PTFE. You will see me mention this one regularly as it is the most common of the fluoropolymers. PTFE is also commonly known by the slippery T word (they have enough publicity so I’m not going to dish out any more here).

PTFE is commonly manufactured using HCFC-22 (or R22 in refrigerant world) and is both an ozone and climate damaging f-gas. It has an exemption for feedstock use because there are supposedly no ‘direct’ emissions however despite this we are seeing growing atmospheric readings of its super-polluting by-product HFC-23.

PTFE then goes on to be used in also sorts of things, including cosmetics, given its slickness and stability. It goes under a variety of ingredient names and fortunately, there is some help here. Of course, there is then what happens once it washes down the drain…

It’s not like there is a shortage of alternative products out there either. This list of products however are some to think twice about when doing your gift shopping.

Right, that’s all for this week and ‘till next time

Adrian

p.s. last week’s title - Suddenly I see - was courtesy of KT Tunstall. I came across this article recently which provided a nice insight to the track also. Worth a read if you’re a fan.

Fixed stuff here for newcomers

There is lots of news every week from the cooling industry and plenty of newsletters that cover it well. The intention is to keep this newsletter focused on refrigerants, the most prominent of the f-gases, and importantly their environmental impact. That’s the lane I’ve chosen - I’ll do my best to stick to it.

Why any of this matters:

Emissions from f-gases and refrigerants have been the fastest growing greenhouse gas over the decade (yes more than CO2 and methane - check out IPCC WG3 summary for policy makers). They are also classed as super pollutants given their outsized global warming impact over the coming decades.

You can find my basic primer here and a plenty more detail in the whitepaper here

Reminder to those in management and doing reporting: If you’re not including refrigerant emissions in your inventories or sustainability reports – you should be. Feel free to reach out if you need a hand.

Some useful permalinks

The scale of the climate challenge can often feel daunting. This piece helps me take a step back and understand where we need to focus first - recommend a read.

There are plenty of technology solutions available to address the cooling and refrigerant challenge. You can find many of them here

Beware when the same people who have contributed to the current f-gas problem propose you new refrigerant solutions… This is a good place to get up to speed.