R454B Refrigerant - whats all the fuss?

Here is an AC condensing unit I installed last week. Nothing new from the outside right?

That upside down bottle is R454B. In this photo I am charging a new system at start up.

If you look close you will see the red tags on the ports for my guages. These are telling you that R454B is flammable. That is true, but there are levels of flammability. The level of flammability for R454B is very low. It is not going to catch fire and create a blow torch flame if it escapes and hits a spark. It actually won't do anything unless there is first a hot flame then a leak. Even in that case it is just sort of a fluttering flame less than a half inch long and goes out very easily.

I have opened a bottle of the stuff and used an actual torch to try to ignite it and make it burn, and it's almost impossible.

But flammable is flammable and all kinds of safety devices are included with any new system using R454B.

The most common is what was used for this system which is an automatic monitoring device that shuts everything down in the event of leak detection in the indoor unit coil.

Why are we using "flammable" refrigerants? Because the last one - R410A had a much higher imapact on the environment. R410A is no longer used for this reason.

If you want to know more about the advantages of newer systems using the new refrigerants call and ask for John at 814 250 2455.

I am always glad to help.