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EPA Regulations and Refrigerant Safety Flashcards

6 cards from real HVAC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.

Read the first 6 EPA Regulations and Refrigerant Safety flashcards as text

  1. Under EPA Section 608, technicians who purchase or handle refrigerants in HVAC/R systems must be what?

    Answer: Certified under EPA Section 608

    EPA Section 608 of the Clean Air Act requires that technicians who service, maintain, repair, or dispose of appliances containing regulated refrigerants be certified.

  2. What does it mean for a refrigerant to have a high Global Warming Potential (GWP)?

    Answer: Releasing it into the atmosphere contributes significantly more to climate change than an equivalent mass of CO2

    GWP measures how much heat a greenhouse gas traps compared to CO2 over 100 years; a high-GWP refrigerant like R-410A (GWP=2088) has a much greater climate impact per pound released than CO2.

  3. What is the primary reason R-22 (HCFC) refrigerant is being phased out under the Montreal Protocol and US Clean Air Act?

    Answer: It contains chlorine that destroys stratospheric ozone when released

    R-22 is an HCFC (hydrochlorofluorocarbon) that releases chlorine atoms when it breaks down in the stratosphere, catalytically destroying ozone molecules.

  4. Under EPA Section 608, what is required when removing refrigerant from an HVAC system?

    Answer: Refrigerant must be recovered into an approved recovery cylinder using certified recovery equipment

    EPA Section 608 prohibits venting refrigerants and requires technicians to use certified recovery equipment to capture refrigerant into approved DOT cylinders before opening any system.

  5. What is the ASHRAE refrigerant safety classification system based on?

    Answer: Toxicity (A=lower, B=higher) and flammability (1=no flame, 2=lower, 3=higher) classes

    ASHRAE's refrigerant classification uses a two-character system: a letter for toxicity (A=lower, B=higher) and a number for flammability (1=none, 2L=lower, 2=higher, 3=highest).

  6. What refrigerant type are HFOs (hydrofluoroolefins) designed to have compared to HFCs?

    Answer: Very low GWP while maintaining good thermodynamic properties

    HFO refrigerants (like R-1234yf and R-1234ze) were developed to provide very low GWP (less than 1) as a climate-friendly alternative to high-GWP HFC refrigerants.