FGAS Compliance
Important notice for all owners of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment
Air Conditioning/Refrigeration and F-gas & ODS compliance:
This is to remind you of recent European and Environmental Protection Agency requirements that are in effect for all owners and operators of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. In essence if you have any air conditioning or refrigeration equipment in your building this affects you.
As the owner or operator of refrigeration and/or air conditioning equipment you are now legally obliged to do the following:
- Have your air conditioning equipment leak checked regularly (see frequency of leak detection inspection below).
- Employ only qualified engineers to work on your equipment.
- Maintain records of all refrigerants within your equipment with a charge of 3kg or more (if hermetic, 6kg or more).
- Keep records of all maintenance, repairs and leak checking performed on each piece of equipment.
- Prevent leakage and repair any leaks as soon as possible.
- If the refrigerant content (per system) is >3KG then the system must be leak checked every 12 months, if >30K it must be inspected every 6 months and if >300KG it must be inspected every 3 months
Where you have employed an air conditioning/refrigeration contractor to maintain and leak check your equipment under maintenance agreement/contract then the responsibility may shift to the contractor for record keeping and compliance.
If you have your air conditioning and refrigerant equipment under maintenance agreement/contract with an F gas registered company then my advice is to stay with your current company as they should be ensuring compliance and keeping you up to date with current requirements.
There are numerous information booklets available for download from the EPA website http://epa.ie/downloads/advice/air/ods/ in connection with Ozone Depletion Substances (ODS) and Fluorinated gases (F-gas) at http://www.epa.ie/whatwedo/advice/air/ozone/guidanceanddownloads/
HCFC (including R22) phase out – If you have and R22 equipment onsite, you should consider replacing it with more energy efficient equipment. If HCFC equipment needs a refrigerant based repair, you can only use recycled or reclaimed refrigerant. From January 2015 it will be illegal to use recycled or reclaimed refrigerant
What this means is that if you have any HCFC based equipment such as R22 or R408A you may continue to use if as long as it does not need a repair which involves the refrigerant circuit.
