F-Gas Regulations

F-Gas and your obligations

The F-Gas Regulation places duties on operators and personnel involved in the manufacture, installation service and maintenance of applications containing fluorinated greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol.

From July 2007, new legal obligations were introduced to control and contain the use of F-gases – these are the fluorinated gases used in air conditioning systems. Operators with on-site air conditioning systems could be breaking the law if these systems do not receive the relevant preventative checks at the specified intervals. The ‘F-Gas Regulation’ states that, with regard to the operation and maintenance of systems containing F-Gases, you are required to carry out the following:

• Take all measures to prevent leakage of F-Gases.
• Arrange for an annual leakage check to be carried out on any systems containing 3kg or more of F-Gas refrigerant.
• Arrange for the repair of any detected leaks without delay.
• Keep a record of the type & quantity of F-gas within each system, any quantities added and the quantity recovered during servicing, maintenance and final disposal.

Training and certification

At present, in the UK any personnel handling F-Gas refrigerants must, by law, hold one of the following qualifications:

• City & Guilds 2079 certificate in handling refrigerants.
• CITB Safe handling of refrigerant certificate-J11.

For further information please follow this link to the DEFRA website:
https://www.defra.gov.uk/fgas