Why is ammonia not used in residential applications as a refrigerant, but so prevalent in industrial applications?
Ammonia is a very toxic gas. It’s not used in residential applications because of potential for leakage into homes. Industrial complexes use ammonia refrigeration but under very stringent monitoring requirements. In reality, the typical homeowner would be at great risk from gaseous ammonia vs. standard refrigerant. The liability to the HVAC industry would be huge. Cooling FAQs are provided by the Houston-based Cooling Technology Institute (CTI), a non-profit organization dedicated to improvement in technology, design, performance and maintenance of cooling towers and evaporative heat transfer systems (EHTS). They’re from the “Ask the Expert” column of CTI Journal.
