Legislation

F-GAS - Does your company comply?

These regulations affect anyone who owns/uses air conditioning or refrigeration equipment containing CFC/HCFC gases.

In July 2007 DEFRA brought into force a series of new mandatory regulations called F-Gas, concerning the use of CFC and HCFC refrigerant gases in air conditioning and refrigeration plant.

This has significant implications for you as the owners/users of the equipment. The manufacturing of CFC refrigerants in the UK has already been banned and by the 1st January 2010 the use of virgin HCFC refrigerants will also be illegal.

What does this mean to an owner/user of this equipment?

As an owner/user of this equipment you will be expected to comply with the following regulations which came into force on the 4th July 2007:

  1. Systems containing 3kg or more of F-gases must be leak-checked every twelve months. Note, these inspection periods increase to twice a year for systems containing 30kg or more and every 3 months if a system contains 300kg or more.

  2. If any work is undertaken on the refrigeration circuit, then the system must be leak-checked one month after the repair.

  3. An on-site log must be kept detailing the system model number, serial number, the type and amount of refrigerant it uses, details of any work conducted on the system and who conducted these works. This log must be made available to DEFRA on their request.

By the 1st January 2010 it will become increasingly difficult to repair and maintain equipment containing refrigerants such as R22 because of the total ban on its production.

Naturally Air 2K would be pleased to help you plan for this change in advance of the January 2010 cut-off date.

What we can do for you as a contractor

As an established air conditioning/refrigeration contractor we comply with all the requirements expected by DEFRA. These are listed below:

  1. Ensure that all personnel working on or with refrigerants have a City and Guilds or equivalent Safe Handling of Refrigerant Certificate
  2. Be registered with DEFRA for the safe disposal of refrigerants
  3. Annually calibrate all measuring equipment
  4. Create the on-site log required by DEFRA
  5. Advise you on the possible replacement of older equipment
  6. Recommend suitable retrofitting of older equipment with ‘drop in’ replacement gases

We would be more than happy to visit your premises and conduct a site survey and answer any further questions in relation to this legislation.

Air conditioning systems which use evaporative condensers in their cooling process

Some air conditioning systems use evaporative condensers in their cooling process; these types of system must be registered with the local authority under The Notification of Cooling Towers and Evaporative Condensers Regulations 1992.

 
 
Air 2K Engineering Ltd
Tel: 0800 083 0749