ACR Journal

06 ❘ The Refrigerant Update is becoming integral to the discussions with Government as we look to the F-Gas review and what it might entail. With the shift towards flammable refrigerants in all sectors of the RACHP industry the need to focus on that competence and responsible safe handling has never been more acute. “In-Scope” Refrigerants With a relatively uncontrolled online sales route there has been a cynical attempt by some to circumvent the regulations by importing small air conditioning split systems aimed at the domestic market using R290 – the hydrocarbon Propane – and actively marketing them as “not requiring installation by an F-Gas registered engineer or spe cialist equipment”. The prospect of DIY installation by any non-trained personnel of a system that would, by design, be pumping high pressure flammable refrigerant into a home, and actively encouraging purging of lines rather than evacuation of the lines by a proprietary vacuum pump leaving moisture in the system led to us challenging the supplier in question over the practice. A simultaneous challenge from the Environment Agency following up on evidence we had submitted has resulted in that same supplier now notifying the need for installation to be performed by “a qualified F-Gas registered engineer”, so we are heading in the right direction – albeit there is a long way to go on that score! But this incident did highlight that where you impose regulatory controls on a small part of a sector then there will always be those who look at ways to avoid compliance rather than stepping up and doing the right thing. So the loopholes around which refrigerants are included in-scope of the F-Gas Regulations clearly need to be closed off permanently. ACRIB - the UK’s industry umbrella body - has echoed that of AREA - the European contractors’ association – in suggesting that all greenhouse gases should be “in-scope” for a regulation designed to minimise emissions of greenhouse gases. CO 2 may have a GWP of only 1 and Propane only 4 – but that means they are greenhouse gases and surely the whole point of the Regulation was to omit or at least minimise emissions of greenhouse gases?The rhetoric for too long has discussed refrigerants in terms of “natural” or “man-made” – an utterly false and deliberately misleading terminology designed to baffle the politicians at home and abroad – largely successfully until now. Calling propane “natural”, for example, couches it in terms of being safe and benign. It is clearly not when you remember it is a highly flammable substance that should not be in the hands of non-trained personnel. Building Safety Bill The Hackitt Report directed an even sharper focus on competence and responsibility. Anybody who has listened Refrigerant designation (name) GWP R290 (propane) 4 R32 675 R134a 1430 R744 (carbon dioxide) 1