Thinking more on GWP.....My old Alhambra had a leaky AC (common to all Alhambra mk1/2 models over 3yrs old). It would empty over a year and had to be recharged  with 750g R134a annually.

 

So an annual GWP equivalent of 975kg of CO2.

 

It averaged around 50 mpg which is equivalent to around 150g/km

 

In the last 3 or 4 years of my 20 yr ownership I only did around 2000 miles/yr which is equivalent to 480kg of CO2.

 

So my leaky AC contributed over twice as much to global warming as my actual driving!

 

Oh dear....

23 hours ago, xman said:

I looked up GWP and found it quite enlightening

 

Global Warming Potential of gases are referenced to CO2 which is defined as having GWP of 1

 

Gas                              GWP

CO2                                   1

R600a Iso Butane           3

R1234yf                            4

Methane                        28

R134a                        1300

R12 (old Freon)        10200

 

 

So releasing 500g of R134a into the atmosphere is equivalent to releasing 650kg of CO2. For those old fridges and vehicles (pre 1994) that had R12 - a typical American car of that era had over 1kg, that released is equivalent to over 10 tonnes of CO2

 

Interestingly Mercedes Benz and VAG have developed systems using CO2 currently only on their top end models such as S class and E class. I wonder how expensive that gas is to refill?

 

 

 

Just did some sums to work out the equivalence versus CO2 emissions from normal driving.

 

To start off with, I'd say it's fairer to imagine you'd only release 50-100g of R134a if you did illegally vent a non-working system, because if your system contained more than that, it would probably still be working to some extent. Let's go with 100g.

 

So an equivalent of 130kg CO2 now.

 

Let's pick 40mpg as a decent real-world average for a petrol car, apparently that equates to about 170g/km of CO2 emissions, or 270ish g per mile.

 

So for the 130kg CO2 equivalent R134a release you would actually travel only 130000/270 = 480 miles

 

Doesn't seem quite so dramatic now, although I'm in no way condoning deliberate release of any global warming gas for zero benefit, as the OP's original question suggested he was considering.

 

What does seem dramatic is chucking out somewhere around 100kg of CO2 per tank of petrol used, tank size dependent obviously! Sounds mad considering a (40 litre) tankful of petrol only weighs about 30kg. Oxygen is heavy stuff!

 

That's about 55 000 litres of pure CO2 gas volume at 20°C, I think? 

 

 

 

 

 Near-simultaneous calculator bashing! 

5 hours ago, xman said:

 

For information, R245fa GWP = 1030

 

I was made responsible for weighing that virgin R245fa when it was delivered, and weighed when it was removed as waste.

 

Now here is what might be a curious thing in the way some F-gases are controlled, all our R245fa waste was either scrubbed up and credited to us (maybe) or mainly sold on to foam blowers to be used as a propellant - think about it, where did that gas end up when used to blow foam, but not to worry by that time its description had been changed from being an F-Gas and so subject to strict controls, to being a propellant for the foam blowing industry.