Leak Check Procedure as approved by the Commission in October 2007

The Commission agreed the final procedure for leak checking at a meeting in October 2007.  The Regulation adopted establishes the standard leakage checking requirements for working and temporarily out of operation stationary refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump equipment containing 3 kg or more of fluorinated greenhouse gases.  This Regulation does not apply to equipment with hermetically sealed systems, which are labelled as such and contain less than 6 kg of fluorinated greenhouse gases.
Leak check procedure
 
The Institute of Refrigeration has produced a practical guide to Leak Checking procedures as required by the F Gas Regulation. This can be downloaded here.  You can see the full text of the Regulation adopted in October 2007 by the Commission at the BERR website.
Leak checking schedule
  • At least annually for applications with 3kg or more of F-gases (unless the equipment is hermetically sealed and labelled as such, in which case the threashhold is up to 6kg). For a definition of hermetically sealed see the DEFRA Guidance for Users.
  • At least once every six months for applications with 30kg or more of F-gases
  • At least once every three months for applications with 300kg or more of F-gases
  • Leakage detection systems must be installed on applications with 300 kg or more of F-gases, and when these are in place, checking requirements are halved
  • If a leak is detected and repaired, a further check must be carried out within one month to ensure that the repair has been effective
 
Maintenance and servicing records
Operators of all stationary systems containing 3kg or more of F-gases must maintain records including
  • Quantity and type of F-gases installed, added or recovered. The system should be labelled with its total charge but if not you can estimate this using a Calculator provided by UK Government.
  • Identification of the company or technician carrying out servicing and details of the Operator
  • Dates and results of leakage checks, specifically identifying separate pieces of equipment containing 30kgs or more of refrigerant
It is the operator's responsibility to ensure that the relevant servicing personnel have obtained the necessary certification, which shows that they understand the regulations and are competent.
A sample equipment register is available from ACRIB
 
Who can carry out the Leak Checking?
The Commission has now finalised its specification for training and certification of personnel under the F Gas Regulations and ACRIB is working with the awarding bodies to ensure that new F Gas qualifications are available from July 2008.  See the ACRIB Training and Certification page for an update on the situation.