General Guidance

The EU F-gas Regulation – what does it mean for you?

 

The European Union's F-gas Regulation No 842/2006 became law on 4 July 2006. Here is a brief summary of its

requirements for the UK's Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry, which come into force (unless otherwise

stated) on 4 July 2007. (F-gases include all HFC refrigerants, such as R134a, R407C, and R410A.)

 

Equipment operators

• If you operate stationary refrigeration or air conditioning systems, you must prevent leakage and repair any leaks as soon as possible. You must arrange proper refrigerant recovery by certified personnel. If you operate other products including mobile equipment, appropriately qualified personnel must be used to recover gases as long as this is technically feasible and not disproportionately costly.
• You must ensure that only certified competent personnel carry out leakage checks, and that these are done to the schedule and procedure set by the Commission.
• Where leakage detection systems are used on large systems, these must be checked at least annually.
• You will need to maintain records of all refrigerants in equipment with a charge of 3kg or more (if hermetic, 6kg or more).
• You must keep a specific record identifying equipment containing a charge of 30kg or more.

 

Contractors

• You will be affected by minimum requirements for training and certification of companies and personnel involved in installation, maintenance, servicing, containment, and recovery activities. The EC has now established a training and certification assessment to meet the requirements of the Regulation. The new F Gas qualifications are being delivered by City & Guilds (2079) and CITB (J10) approved centres and the first courses were offered in Feburary 2009. 
• Special temporary requirements are now in place between 4 July 2007 and January 2009 regarding minimum personnel certification to handle F Gases.  This means that provided you hold a City & Guilds 2078 or CITB Refrigerant Handling an continue to handle refrigerants legally - but only up until July 2011 by which time you must have achieved one of the new F Gas qualifications above..
• Companies employing personnel who handle refrigerants need to be registered. They will have to apply for a temporary interim certificate by July 2009. Government is expected to announce the procedure for gaining this certificate in March 2009. 
• New F Gas qualifications will have mutual recognition status - which means that personnel can work anywhere in the EU once they have achieved the new qualifications, and you will have to recognise qualifications achieved outside the UK. The EU is due to set up a list of all accpetable Europe-wide qualifications.
• All EU Member States have to establish reporting systems to acquire emission data where possible. You may have to help implement these systems.
• Where new equipment is field installed and additional F Gas refrigerant introduce to the system you will have to label the equipment with information about the refrigerant charge and other details as laid down by the Commission. 
• It should be noted that you might be asked by operators to accept some of the operator's responsibilities under an appropriate contract.
• From 4 July 2009, companies involved with containment and recovery will only be able to take delivery of F gases if they have appropriately certificated personnel.

 

Producers, importers, exporters

• Producers must report production, expected applications, amount placed on the market, amount recycled, etc.
• Importers (of more than one tonne p.a.) must report quantity imported or placed on the market, expected applications, amount recycled, etc. Exporters (of more than one tonne p.a.) must report quantities exported.

 

Manufacturers

• Substances, new products and new equipment must be labelled from April 2008. The form of label  was established by a separae regulation in 2007. Specific wording including information on the GWP of the refrigerant is to be included in instruction manuals.

 

Sales

• EU sales of non-refillable containers and non-confined direct evaporation systems are prohibited.
• From 4 July 2009, companies involved with containment and recovery will only be able to take delivery of F gases if they have appropriately certificated personnel.

 

Review

• The EC will review requirements by end of 2007 and optionally propose legislation by end 2008, to extend containment requirements to transport refrigeration (Mobile Air conditioning is already covered by a separate Directive and by specialist training requirements). The EC will report within 5 years on experience of the Regulation. If the Regulation is not showing reduced emissions, further restrictions are likely.

 

Further details

• see the DEFRA website and helpline at www.defra.gov.uk/fgas