Quote Originally Posted by The MG Pony View Post
Either way the R-290 whether commercially purified or BBQ grade R-290 home purified beats any man made gas hands down! I'll take the HC fridge in a fire any day of the week over an HFC fridge!
It's pretty funny how many claim that hydrocarbon refrigerants are "unsafe" when fluorocarbons turn to phosgene, hydrogen fluoride, or some other toxic gas in a fire.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/1...8BB0HE20121212

In a residential refrigerator or packaged A/C, the amount needed is very small and should pose little safety concern. In automotive A/C, the amount needed is tiny compared to all the gasoline and other flammable fluids already used. (It might actually make a good argument in an electric car, but only if the batteries are LiFePO4 or other non flammable chemistry.) Large commercial and industrial systems are a different story, but even there the risks can be mitigated.

Ultimately, I would like to see water used as an A/C refrigerant. Nonflammable and nontoxic. My friend Brittany Benzaia actually built a prototype "hybrid" A/C that uses it open loop in an evaporative condenser as well as in a sealed system with a switched reluctance centrifugal compressor. She claims that it's equivalent to a 40 SEER unit, but I'm pretty sure that's only attainable in very dry, very hot climates like Arizona.

BTW, I'm sure those pushing the traditional refrigerants would probably call that "dihydrogen monoxide" and claim that many people have died from breathing that stuff, but I'm sure Brittany would be more than happy to debunk that by sniffing a bottle of it, then pouring it all over herself, then telling the "critic" to try that with their refrigerant.