EnergyStar room A/C units - are there reliability compromises?

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A major thing folks forget when discussing refrigerator and AC units is that the EPA has been forcing a phase out of various refrigerants. Good old Freon was great stuff, would run forever at fairly low pressures. Unfortunately it chewed a hole in the ozone when released. The various replacements require higher pressures and that makes things more difficult for longevity. I don't even know what the current brew is but recently read that its being phased out and replaced with another version with even lower ozone depletion potential.
 
This is true. It will be fun to see whats next, I hear it will not be a blend but a whole new chemical makeup.
 
Just as they made a better battery with lithuim -ion , they can find a refrigerant that doesn't destroy the enviroment IMO.
 
Isn't CO2 the next big thing for refrigerant?
As in "Back to the Future"?;) If not for the challenge of the high pressures required and others, we'd probably be using CO2 for a hundred years by now. But it seems to be gaining ground now commercially and will likely continue to become mainstream.

Other Green Room users here will know more than I about current developments, though.
 
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