Despite the European Union’s F-gas Regulation becoming law last year it was in July that many of the measures came into effect,
Does your company use water chillers, air conditioning or other refrigeration equipment? If so, do you comply with the European Union’s F-gas Regulation? F-gases or Fluorinated gases, which include HFCs the commonest refrigerants used today, have a high global warming potential. The F-gas legislation was therefore brought in to help meet the EU’s Kyoto Protocol obligations by working to minimise the emissions of these gases and so reduce their impact on the environment. Since packaged chillers and air conditioning systems have historically leaked refrigerant, users and owners of the systems, as well as service and maintenance companies, now have a serious role to play in reducing F-gas emissions in line with this legislation.
Despite the F-gas Regulation becoming law last year, the majority of measures come into effect on
Interestingly, the legislation does not blanket ban HFCs, instead there are certain placing on the market bans and the key aspects of F-gas are secure refrigerant containment, documented leak inspection regimes, record keeping, auditable refrigerant recovery, skills training and the appropriate safe refrigerant handling certification of the service and maintenance company and its employees. Although, much of the responsibility for conformance to F-gas is placed on the ‘operator’ of the refrigeration equipment, the majority of the work required to comply with the legislation will be carried out by a service and maintenance contractor. Both parties will therefore need to work closely together to ensure refrigerant containment since leaks can be a real problem, with 60-70 per cent of all refrigerant currently being used just for the service and maintenance of existing plant.
With this July seeing many of the F-gas measures coming into force, works engineers now need to sit down and work out a strategy with their service contractor in order to meet their responsibilities. Secure refrigerant containment is core to the regulation so it is necessary to both prevent leaks and repair any leakage as soon as possible. Leak prevention and detection is aided through monitoring according to a mandatory leak checking schedule. The leak testing regime set out in the F-gas legislation calls for all chillers or air conditioning systems with a refrigerant charge of 3kg but under 30kg to be leak tested annually (though for hemetically sealed systems annual leakage checks are carried out 6kg up to 30kg), from 30kg up to 300kg every six months and over 300kg every three months. Additionally, those of 300kg and greater must be fitted with an automatic leak detection device. (To find out a system’s refrigerant charge works engineers should refer to the system’s label but if it does not have one there is an estimator calculator on the DEFRA website http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/fgas.)
According to the regulation, if a refrigerant leak is found and repaired during service and maintenance, or as a result of an automatic detection, the system must be rechecked with the appropriate leak detection equipment by a suitably qualified engineer within one month of repair to ensure refrigerant containment. However, service and maintenance must only be carried out by those adequately trained in safe refrigerant handling and leak testing techniques while any refrigerants that are recovered must be safely disposed of. Again, the Defra website contains information on which qualifications are required.
In addition to leak testing regimes, to comply with F-gas each chiller or air conditioning system containing a refrigerant charge in excess of 3kg, must have an accompanying log book, kept available for inspection. The log book will detail the date of any repairs, identify the company or service engineer undertaking the servicing or testing, as well as the exact nature of any work carried out, refrigerants used and refrigerants recovered and taken away.
However, leak testing, servicing and log books will only comply with the F-gas legislation if the service contractors involved in the procedures are appropriately qualified. It is therefore part of the operator’s duty of care to ensure that the service and maintenance contractors employed to maintain refrigeration and air conditioning systems hold the necessary certification showing that they understand the F-gas regulation and are competent to do the job. When appointing or reviewing a service contractor, for work on stationary refrigeration and air conditioning systems, works engineers currently should ensure that the contractors have obtained the City and Guilds Certificate in Handling Refrigerants Scheme 2078 or the Construction Industry Training Board Safe Handling of Refrigerants Reference 206710. However, these qualifications may be subject to change if they do not meet minimum requirements, as proposed by the Commission and agreed by the Member States, which are due to be agreed in October 2007. Works engineers can check the Defra website in October for further information. Only service engineers with appropriate qualifications are permitted to undertake service and maintenance on equipment within the scope of the Regulation.
(The Defra website has information products which can help to inform your decisions taken on complying with the F-gas Regulation. These include General Guidance, Frequently Asked Questions, Refrigeration Charge Calculator and Supplementary Guidance for the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Sector.)
Coolmation Group’s Service4Chillers organisation, Coolmation Service Ltd, for example, employs service engineers who are all qualified to City & Guilds 2078, therefore meeting current standards necessary to meet the F-gas Regulation. In addition, Coolmation Service is also a REFCOM Certified company. When choosing a service contractor, Refcom Certification is another important way to distinguish a company qualified to meet F-gas requirements. Refcom Certification provides customers with reassurance that the service contractor will comply with F-gas legislation since Refcom certified companies are:
- Registered as carriers of hazardous waste;
- Possess recognized certification competency to handle refrigerants;
- Conform with all current legal requirements;
- Operate auditable procedures for the proper control of refrigerants;
- Use purpose designed refrigerant recovery equipment;
- Can account for all refrigerant used and recovered;
- Are environmentally aware and perform refrigerant transactions with minimum transmissions.
This means that if October sees changes to the service engineer qualifications needed to conform with the F-gas Regulation, Refcom certification will provide reassurance that the member company will adhere to the new requirements.
Coolmation Service is a company that ticks all the right quality assurance boxes for customers, as well as Refcom safe refrigerant handling, the company has ISO 9001:2000 certification and Safe Contractor accreditations. Offering 24/7 service and maintenance Coolmation Service ensures that chillers and air conditioning works effectively and safely for you and your process, meeting the F-gas regulation and giving you real peace of mind instead of problems that could eventually cost downtime, money and possibly legal implications.
The company specializes exclusively in the service and maintenance of water and glycol chillers, all makes, all models, all capacities: air cooled, water cooled with scroll, screw or reciprocating compressors. Coolmation Service operates a fleet of fully equipped satellite tracked service vans enabling service engineers to arrive promptly with the right parts, the right refrigerant and the right tools and equipment. This service results in 90% of calls being satisfied on the first visit, leading to lower call out costs, less chiller downtime and less business disruption.
