If some reported estimates are to be believed (and I personally have no reason to doubt them) we are still using approximately 2000 tonnes of R22 every year.

As R22 has not been used in new plants for a number of years now it has to be assumed that all the refrigerant being used is by service and maintenance staff to top up leaking systems. It is has been estimated the leakage rate is 20% so there are obviously a large number of leaking systems out there.

Of course, R22 is being phased out as we are all aware and the refrigerant suppliers are busy advising us which is the most appropriate refrigerant to convert to. The vast majority of the refrigerants being proposed are HFCs which are powerful green house gases.

I can’t imagine that any one would truly suggest converting a leaking system and would recommend taking measures to reduce the leaks before the conversion.

However, if the system doesn’t leak, and retains its charge of R22 it can continue to operate for some time and there is no need to convert. If it can’t contain its charge it must be leaking so it would be irresponsible (not to mention illegal) to convert.

In an ideal world, all the leaking plants would automatically be replaced with leak free ones. However, this isn’t the world isn’t perfect and end users do not have bottomless pockets, so maybe we will be simply replacing one environmental problem with another.