Information and advice from the air conditioning experts

F-Gas Regulations

Legislation relating to Air Conditioning Systems

Current legislation relating to air conditioning systems is summarised below.

Owners/operators of air conditioning and heat pump systems could end up facing serious penalties if they don’t comply with these regulations.

Not being aware of your responsibilities will not prevent the government from imposing financial penalties on anyone found to be in breach of these regulations which have been introduced to improve energy efficiency and reduce damage to the environment from leaking global warming and ozone-depleting gases.

It follows that the owner/operator must bear the cost of complying with the legislation.

Refrigerant leakage checks

Owners/operators of air conditioning systems must:
• Prevent leakage of refrigerant and repair any leaks as soon as possible.
• Arrange proper refrigerant recovery by certified personnel during servicing and disposal.
• Carry out leak checks to the schedule shown below.
• Ensure that only certified competent personnel carry out leakage checks.
• Maintain records of refrigerant usage and of servicing.
The checking frequency varies depending upon the amount of refrigerant in the system as follows:-
• At least annually for systems with 3kg or more of refrigerant.
• At least every 6 months for systems with 30kg or more of refrigerant.
• At least every 3 months for systems with 300kg or more of refrigerant.
• Leakage detection equipment must be installed on systems with 300kg or more of refrigerant and when this is in place, checking frequency requirements are halved.
• When a leak is detected and repaired, a further check must be carried out within one month to ensure that the repair has been effective.
Operators must maintain service records including:
• Quantity and type of refrigerant gases in the system and refrigerant added or recovered.
• Identification of the company or technician carrying out the servicing.
• Dates and results of leakage checks, specifically identifying separate pieces of equipment containing 30kg of refrigerant or more.
It is the operator’s responsibility to ensure that the relevant servicing personnel have obtained the necessary certification which shows they understand the regulations and are competent.

R22 REPLACEMENT

R22 refrigerant is a hydro chlorine fluoride carbon (HCFC) and is used commonly in air conditioning, chillers and industrial refrigerant plant applications.

Due to its ozone depleting properties (ODP) is no longer considered acceptable under the Montreal Protocol.

Production of R22 air conditioning equipment ceased in 2003 and the use of virgin R22 being banned from 01.01.2010.

Reclaimed R22 refrigerant can be used until 01.01.2015 but due to demand this can be very difficult to obtain and very expensive.

New refrigerants and equipment have been developed and the most popular systems operate on refrigerant R410A which has a zero ozone depleting potential and is more energy efficient than the R22 refrigerant equipment. However it has now been realised in the latter years that R41oa has a very GWP and the latest refrigerant to be introduced now is R32 which will replace R410a.

New systems operating on this refrigerant are up to 30% more efficient equating to less energy consumption, lower subsequent energy costs and lower CO2 emissions.

R22 equipment can be used after 01.01.2015 but replacement components will be extremely difficult to obtain and it will be illegal to top up the refrigerant circuit with new or virgin R22 refrigerant

Air Conditioning Energy Inspections

Air-conditioning systems with an effective rated cooling output of more than 12kw must be regularly inspected by an accredited Energy Assessor in order to satisfy the Energy Performance Buildings Directive (EPBD). The inspections must be a maximum of five years apart.

The regulations require the first inspection of air-conditioning systems to be carried out as follows:
• where the effective rated cooling output is more than 250kW the first inspection must happen by 4 January 2009
• for other air-conditioning systems, where the effective rated cooling output is more than 12kW the first inspection must happen by 4 January 2011
• for all ‘new’ systems first put into service on or after 1 January 2008, the first inspection must have taken place within five years of the date when it was first put into service
From 4 January 2011, if the person in control of the air-conditioning system changes and the new person in control is not given an inspection report, the new person in control of the system must ensure the air-conditioning system is inspected within three months of the day that person assumes control of the system.

The effective rated output is the maximum calorific output in kW stated by the manufacturer of the system as deliverable during continuous operation while complying with the useful efficiency indicated by the manufacturer.

One or more air-conditioning units within a building controlled by a single person are considered to comprise a single air-conditioning system for the purposes of the regulations.

Note:

This Legislation is mainly intended to apply where air conditioning is provided for the comfort of occupants. It does not apply to process cooling i.e. where air conditioning is provided purely as a requirement for a manufacturing process, or for cooling electronic equipment in unmanned rooms.

ERP Legislation

Comes into force on 1st January 2013. It introduces minimum energy efficiency requirements for air conditioning systems up to 12kW.

Government Grants 

Ask one of our air conditioning experts about ways we can help you to take advantage of Government grants that are currently available.

Chillaire Group Company Policies

GDRP – Privacy Policy

Revision Date: 21st May 2018

(General Data Protection Regulations Document Number: 002)

This privacy policy sets out how Chillaire Limited uses and protects any
Information that you may provide us.

Chillaire Limited is a business to business supplier of air conditioning, heating and ventilation equipment, services and support. Chillaire Limited is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

Our GDPR Principles:

We will process all personal data fairly and lawfully.
We will only process personal data for specified and lawful purposes.
We will endeavour to hold relevant and accurate personal data, and where practical, we will keep it up to date.
We will not keep personal data for longer than is necessary.
We will keep all personal data secure.
We will endeavour to ensure that personal data is not transferred to countries outside of the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) without adequate protection being in place.

Chillaire Limited may change this policy from time to time and updated copy can be requested at any time. This policy is effective from25th May 2018.

What we collect

Name and job title
Address and contact information including telephone number and email address

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with our services, and in particular for the following reasons:

Internal record keeping
Order processing
Provision of services and aftercare support
We may use the information to improve our products and services

We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers, revised quotations or other information which we think you may find of interest by email using the email address provided by you. You can request to unsubscribe from receiving any emails by replying to enquiries@chillaire.co.uk or by calling our office.

We may contact you from time to time for market research or for quality assurance exercise to complete a questionnaire for quality purposes.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect.

Other Policies Available upon Request

Health & Safety
Environmental
Sustainability
Equal Opportunities
Alcohol & Substance Abuse
Working with Asbestos
COSHH
Fire
Quality Management
Communication
Customer Complaints

Chillaire currently has the following vacancies:

Please complete the following form ensuring the position applied for is clearly noted in the cover letter and attach your CV below.