14 F-Gas The clock is ticking...


A-Gas managing director John Ormerod talks about the phase- out of R22 and a takes a look at how the industry will need to adapt to the new F-Gas regulations.


IT’S BEEN YEARS in the planning but the refrigeration and air conditioning industry will finally hit a brick wall when the use of R22 is outlawed on January 1 2015. As I am sure you are aware, the refrigerant will be banned but all is far from lost for engineers who are still undecided on what to do or for those customers who are simply unaware that change is happening.


The credit crunch, and the recession which followed between 2008 and 2013, may have led to customers delaying decisions on replacing R22. For those who have held back – and to some extent this is understandable – the time for action is now.


While there has been a steady decline in reclaimed R22 sales over the last couple of years, the amount being sold today points to a large amount of equipment in use which is still dependant on R22. For some it has been convenient to warn of the worst and predict that installers and customers in their droves will fail to respond to the deadline but there is still time to prepare and make the change.


For those who have not reacted to the deadline, the first move to make is to start to plan.


As I am sure you know, every piece of customer equipment will have to be assessed and there is no such thing as a one-size fits-all R22 replacement. For guidance,


ACR News September 2014


customers should consult with their engineers and in turn engineers should talk to their wholesalers or refrigerant suppliers.


All users of systems with R22 should already have been given advice on the new replacement HFC refrigerant blends but if you are unsure please seek help from your refrigerant supplier.


F-Gas Revision


It is fair to say that the outlawing of R22 has been further complicated by the latest changes to the F-Gas Regulations which will see a phase down of HFCs and the industry moving towards a take-up of low global warming potential refrigerants. The refrigerant world is changing and we should all prepare for a new way of working.


With confusion surrounding refrigerant replacements, new systems may become more attractive to customers but here there is the risk of burdening users with increased capital costs.


Systems running on natural


refrigerants like CO2, ammonia or hydrocarbons have little or no global warming potential if the refrigerant is released into the atmosphere.


Natural refrigerants have been used for more than 130 years and are exempt from the environmental drive to phase- out man-made refrigerants but changing to natural alternatives will mean new equipment for the customer. Tough decisions


will have to be made but there is no escaping that a sea change is on the way for the industry. There will be a move towards lower-GWP gases controlled by a range of bans – notably the outlawing of servicing large systems with refrigerants of more than 2500 GWP which comes into effect in 2020. In light of the F-Gas


Regulations, and the resulting reduction in supply quota, it is fair to say that there are likely to be considerable R404A supply issues in 2018 if users delay migration to low GWP alternatives. I predict that the shortfall could be enormous.


High GWP refrigerants Some supermarkets have seen the light already and moved to more ozone-friendly refrigerants, but other big players have been dragging their heels for reasons best known to them or making promises to please which may prove very difficult to put into action.


Will the industry be skewed towards fancy HFC blends or will the green refrigerant siren be heeded? Whichever way the wind blows, change is afoot. In the future flammability will be a major consideration and there will have to be considerable upskilling of the industry’s workforce.


The move from the measurement of refrigerant


in kilogrammes to a CO2 equivalent – part of the switch away from high-GWPs – will


also have a serious effect on the how the industry operates. Customers, in particular, are going to find it hard to come to terms with the change. Calculations for usage and leakage will be different and this is likely to pose problems for engineers too. Once again this points to further evidence that it is not a time to stand on the sidelines and watch the world go by.


The R22 phase-out is the pressing problem facing the industry. If you haven’t done so already, and I am sure most of you have, formulate a plan on how to deal with the deadline now. The good news is that you still have time to react and advice is there if you need it. There is a raft of alternatives to R22, each designed to do a different job. A-Gas, for example, offers the Isceon and RS ranges of refrigerants, and Genetron Performax LT (R407F) is also a blend of HFC refrigerants offering an alternative to R22, but of course your choice of refrigerant will depend on the job in hand.


I hope that in the early part of next year I will be sitting in my office pondering the ease with which the industry dealt with the phase out of R22 and that, like the Millennium Bug, it was a problem never on a scale predicted. I do hope that will be the case. Otherwise, the first three months of 2015 could be problematic for the industry.


Visit ACR News online at www.acr-news.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52