Usually it comes down to one of three things: how the equipment was sized, what’s actually included in the labour, or what’s inside the outdoor unit.
This post is about the third one, because it’s the one that almost never comes up in a conversation about price. It’s the refrigerant.
The short version
We quote heat pumps and air conditioners that run on R32 or R454B. We don’t quote systems that run on R410A, even though R410A equipment is legal to sell, legal to install, and often costs less.
That’s a choice we’ve made about the back half of the system’s life, not a statement about anybody else’s quote. Companies quoting R410A are doing nothing wrong. We just don’t want to be the ones who put that particular question on your money.
A phase-down is not a ban
Here’s the part that gets garbled, and it gets garbled because most of what you’ll find online is American.
In Canada, HFC refrigerants like R410A are covered by the Ozone-depleting Substances and Halocarbon Alternatives Regulations, administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada under CEPA 1999. They implement the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
What those regulations do is set a shrinking annual ceiling on how much bulk HFC refrigerant is allowed into the country. Less each year, on a published schedule. That’s the whole mechanism. It is a reduction in supply, not a prohibition on use.
So, plainly: R410A is not banned. It is not illegal. If you have an R410A system in your yard right now, it stays legal to run, legal to service, and legal to recharge for as long as the equipment lives. Nobody is coming to take it away, and nobody should be telling you otherwise.
We are not going to give you a date when R410A equipment stops being made or sold, either. There are dates circulating on contractor blogs, they don’t agree with each other, and we couldn’t find a Canadian primary source for any of them. So we won’t repeat one.
What the schedule actually says
The direction of travel is the part that’s documented, and it’s enough on its own.
Environment and Climate Change Canada reports that Canada reached roughly a 25% average reduction from baseline between 2019 and 2022. From 1 January 2024, the target is a 40% reduction in annual consumption. Developed countries, Canada included, are required to reach an 85% reduction by the mid-2030s.
Read that as a line on a graph rather than as a rule about your house. The volume of this stuff legally permitted to enter Canada gets smaller, on purpose, on a schedule, for the next decade and beyond.
Now put a twenty year life on top of it
This is the whole argument, and it doesn’t need a single scary word.
A heat pump or air conditioner is not a five year purchase. Plan on twenty years, which most homeowners quietly do when they sign, and a system installed this year is expected to still be running in the mid-2040s.
Now line the two things up. The equipment’s working life runs well past the point where the supply of R410A has been cut by 85% by regulation. The system doesn’t stop working. The refrigerant doesn’t stop existing. But every year of that system’s second decade happens in a market where the stuff it needs is deliberately scarcer than it was the year before.
That matters here more than it would in a lot of places. In Metro Vancouver a heat pump isn’t summer-only equipment. The National Building Code of Canada 2020 puts the winter design temperature for Vancouver and Richmond at -7°C, with the range across our service area running to about -10°C toward the eastern and higher-elevation parts. That’s mild enough that a properly sized heat pump does most of the heating too, which means it’s running for a large part of the year, not sitting idle for nine months. A system that works that hard is a system you want to be able to keep working.
What shrinking supply feels like on a service call
Refrigerant isn’t consumed the way fuel is. A sealed system that never leaks never needs more of it. This isn’t about topping up your system every spring.
It’s about the day something does fail. A leak in a line set, a coil that needs replacing, a compressor. The repair itself is normal work. The question is what the refrigerant to recharge the system costs by then, and how easily your contractor can get it.
Two things happen to a refrigerant as the legal supply shrinks. It gets harder to source, and it gets more expensive. We’re not going to put a number on how much more, because we don’t have one and nobody honestly does. But the shape of it isn’t in question, because the reduction is legislated rather than left to the market.
That’s a real risk on a repair fifteen years out, and it’s a risk that doesn’t show up anywhere on the quote you’re holding today. It shows up later, on a different invoice, when the decision has long been made.
So we quote R32 and R454B
R32 and R454B are lower global warming potential refrigerants, which means they sit further away from the tightening end of that schedule. They’re what current equipment is being built around.
That’s the reason, and it’s the only reason. Not that R410A is dangerous, not that it’s about to be outlawed, not that anyone quoting it is cutting a corner. Simply that we’d rather hand you a system whose refrigerant is on the way in than one whose refrigerant is on the way out.
It sometimes makes our number higher. We publish our starting prices so you can see where we sit before anyone comes to your house, and we’d rather explain a difference than hide one.
The other things worth comparing while you’re at it
Refrigerant is one line in a quote. A few others move the number just as much, and they’re worth asking about:
- How the system was sized. Bigger is not better, and an oversized system short cycles instead of running steadily. We’ve written about why oversizing a heat pump backfires and what a heat load report actually is. We size to the load, and the method depends on the system type.
- The efficiency ratings, and which ones. If two quotes list different efficiency numbers, ask which rating each company is quoting. The rating standards changed recently, so the newer SEER2 and HSPF2 figures aren’t directly comparable to the older SEER and HSPF ones.
- What’s covered, and for how long. Our labour warranty is 3 years standard with optional coverage up to 12 years, transferable if you sell the home, and it requires annual maintenance by us to stay valid. Equipment parts are covered under the manufacturer’s warranty, which we handle for you.
- Rebates. Heat pump and ductless mini split installs can qualify under CleanBC Better Homes and the BC Hydro Home Renovation Rebate. Amounts and eligibility change, so check the program’s own site rather than trusting a figure in anyone’s blog post. Furnaces, boilers, dual fuel and central air conditioning don’t qualify under CleanBC.
If you’re comparing quotes right now
Ask each company which refrigerant the system they’ve quoted uses, and write the answer down beside the price. It’s a one word answer, every company can give it, and it tells you something about what you’re being asked to sign that the price alone doesn’t.
If you’d like us to walk through your existing quotes at your kitchen table, book a free assessment or call us at (778) 800-8868. No obligation, and we’re comfortable telling you when someone else’s quote is a good one.