Are you ever surprised at what it costs to maintain your air conditioning system? Do you think that air conditioning maintenance should be less expensive? We do too! The culprit of the high costs of air conditioning maintenance in Nocatee, FL may not be the professionals you hire, it may be Freon.

What is Freon?

Freon is a chemical that a lot of air conditioning systems utilize. It is a gas, also known as R-22, that works to generate all of the cold air that we love from our system on those hot summer days. The Freon gas works to absorb heat and humidity from the air. It is also odorless, making it ideal for home central air conditioning systems.

The Cost of Freon on the Rise

The unfortunate fact about Freon is that the cost of it is on the rise. It is much more expensive to replace the chemical in your air conditioning system today than it was a decade ago. The leading cause of the increase in price is due to the impact it has on the ozone.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Montreal Protocol environmental agreement planned a phase-out of Freon in developing countries. The deal began back in 2004 and continued to expand.

Freon merely is not that good for the environment. The United States has been working to reduce its use of Freon by significant percentages. By the year 2020, the use of R-22 or Freon has to be reduced by 99.5% based on its previous usage. This will substantially eliminate it from the United States air conditioning market.

Supply Getting Limited

The supply that exists for Freon is not what it used to be. The fact is that many air conditioning systems in Nocatee, FL, and around the United States still rely on chemicals. If you have a system that is leaking Freon, you are going to be stuck paying a higher bill than you would expect to have it replaced.

Freon is still in the United States, but the supply of it today is not where it used to be. It is merely a matter of supply and demand. As the supply of Freon goes down, the demand largely remains the same. Due to the market starting to teeter towards stretching the supply thin, prices go up.

Elasticity is the term used in the business world. If a product has an inelastic demand, that means that as the price rises, the demand does not change by that same percentage. That is precisely the case with Freon, and it is leading to costs going up.

The best thing that you can do as a homeowner to avoid the issue is to replace your air conditioning system. Newer systems will use an environmentally friendly coolant. Freon is on the way out, and if you have a system utilizing it, repair costs are skyrocketing. Work with us at J&W Heating and Air + Plumbing to talk through the benefits of avoiding Freon and replacing the air conditioning system in your Nocatee, FL home today.

company icon