You may have noticed these while looking through Safety Data Sheets. You may have noticed them when looking at labels on refrigerant cylinders. I hope you noticed them while you were in the classroom. Either way, there are a lot of questions about how refrigerants and their safety group classifications and I’m going to do my best to answer them.

ASHRAE has come up with a classification of refrigerants that measures them by toxicity and by flammability. ASHRAE, or American Society of Heating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, has been around all the way back since 1894. They provide a collection of the technical and educational information in the heating, ventilating, refrigerating, and air-conditioning. Their official site can be found by clicking here.

Through most circles they are seen as the standard bearer and the first most resource when it comes to refrigeration safety.