Pound for pound hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants (HFCs) trap thousands of times more heat than CO2. Increasing global demand for cooling and refrigeration, makes HFCs the world’s fastest-growing greenhouse gas. These short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) are categorized as exponentially more impactful near-term than other greenhouse gases. Elimination can avoid up to 0.5°C of warming by century’s end. HFC-free fridges use a refrigerant, R-600a or isobutane. Its very low warming potential is 3 compared with R-134a, the typical HFC used in fridges. Unfortunately that’s also used in air-conditioning, building insulation, fire extinguishing systems, and aerosols. Despite the HFC ban in refrigerators as of 2021, you can still buy ones made prior to the ban, so if you need a new one, check:www.futureproofreviews.com/reviews/appliances/climate-friendly-refrigerators/. All fridges are labelled with a sticker located on the inside compartment listing the refrigerant used. Look for “R600a” on this sticker.
In case you’ve ever wondered what I go through when checking info for posts, here’s an example. When I googled HFC (hydro-fluorocarbon) free refrigerators nothing helpful came up. A friend suggested http://www.igsd.org/are-you-ready-to-take-action-on-climate-friendly-refrigerants/ which sent me to climate friendly cooling with a supposedly HFC free refrigerators list. Downloading it produced a bunch of random symbols and letters. I tried to email them. No luck. Oh well. Another location would give me a list but you had to download an app to get it. Didn’t work. Then I went to Energy Star products also supposedly with a list of refrigerators that would show their HFC free status. Nope. After much searching, I finally found a way to contact them. Am awaiting a response. Have a case number. That was over a week ago. Probably hear back by 2022. I prefer to laugh rather than tear my hair out. Bottom line, if you want to know about HFC free refrigerators, google climate friendly or eco friendly refrigerators.
https://eia-global.org/reports/20200625-hfc-free-refrigerator-list
www.epa.gov/ods-phaseout/phaseout-class-ii-ozone-depleting-substances