New HFC Purchase Regulations for 2018

Well folks the do-it-yourselfer air conditioning repairman will be quickly coming to a close at the end of this year. 

No more novices trying to ‘recharge’ their system. No more guys just dumping more refrigerant in. Well, we can 

at least hope so…unless these guys have a friend in the business. Some of the techs and contractors out there 

will rejoice at this news but others will be groaning again at more government regulation control. What side of 

the fence are you on?

What’s Changed?
Starting on January 1st, 2018 the same refrigerant sales restriction that applies to the CFC and HCFC 

refrigerants on the market today are now going to be applied to the HFC refrigerants. HFC refrigerants are the 

most commonly used refrigerants in the market today and include R-134a, R-404A, and R-410A. Chances are 

your home air conditioner is using an HFC refrigerant as I write this.

Starting on January 1,2018,the requirements discussed on this page will also apply to most substitute refrigerants, 

including HFCs.
This sales restriction, just like the previous ones, covers cylinders, cans, drums, or totes of  HFC refrigerants. The

 only exception to this is are the small cans of R-134a refrigerant that contain two pounds or less. This exception is 

there to still allow do-it-yourselfers to repair their car’s air conditioning system. So, the EPA allows the homeowner 

in his garage to dump 134a into his car but they do not allow that same guy to dump pounds of 410A into his three 

ton home unit. In their defense though, 410A is a lot more dangerous than 134a.

If you are a wholesaler of refrigerant then you will need to keep records of every transaction which include the name 

of the purchaser,the date of the sale,the customer’s address and contact information,the type of refrigerant purchased, 

and the quantity of refrigerant cylinders. As a wholesaler you are legally responsible for these records and to discern 

rather your customer is legally able to purchase refrigerant. (Are they 608 or 609 certified?) This is the same process 

when selling customers CFCs or HCFCs and to be honest I’m sure most wholesalers are obtaining this information 

already on HFCs just to be safe so there really won’t be much change for them.

The Why?
Some of you may be asking why this change will be implemented in 2018. While the restriction is still similar to the

previous ones on CFCs and HCFCs the reason is quite different. On the past refrigerants such as R-12 or R-22 

they were put in place due to their Chlorine content. The Chlorine in these refrigerants were found to be damaging 

the O-Zone layer of the atmosphere. Each time a refrigerant was leaked or vented into the atmosphere it caused 

damage. It got to a point where a hole began to form and a global regulations were formed to prevent it from 

happening again.

HFC refrigerants are a different story. Instead of them containing Chlorine the problem is their greenhouse gases 

and each HFC’s Global Warming Potential, or GWP. GWP is a measurement of the greenhouse gas emissions 

that a product releases. It is measured by using the control of Carbon Dioxide. Carbon Dioxide has a GWP of 1. 

Whereas R-134a has a GWP of 1,430. So, you can begin to see the problem. R-134a has over fourteen-hundred 

times the GWP of Carbon Dioxide. Each time an HFC refrigerant is vented or accidentally released into the

atmosphere it actively contributes to Global Warming.

Conclusion
In conclusion if you are already a tech or a mechanic who works on air conditioning machines and are already 608 

or 609 certified then you have nothing to worry about. However, if you were buying HFC refrigerant this year, for 

whatever reason, and you are not certified then you will find that you will not be able to purchase next year without 

being certified. Well, you shouldn’t be able to. You may still have some vendors who don’t ask for 608 or 609 

numbers before selling but I can assure you that after some time they will learn from their mistakes. Trust me, you 

don’t want to be on the EPA’s bad side.