Unfounded rumour and speculation about the future of HFC refrigerants is starting to impact on consultants' decision-making, according to Simon Keel. And, he says, misinformation about the legal life expectancy of gases such R410A is resulting in consultants and designers altering specifications because of unnecessary concerns about their duty of care.
The future of HFCs has not been decided. The F-gas regulations are now under review and have been subject to a major Europe-wide survey. It was expected that there would be a new document in place by mid to end 2012, but now it is likely that this date will slip. No one knows what the position will be on refrigerants when it is published, but from what has already been said it seems likely that HFCs will be phased down over a period of some years. This will enable manufacturers, designers and end users to meet new requirements in a managed and timely manner.

The vast majority of refrigeration and air conditioning, including the rapidly expanding heat pump market, relies on HFCs. For a ban to come into place there would be a plethora of information well in advance which would be published by the press both on a local and international platform. Alarm bells should start ringing if one is given this sort of information from someone who heard it from someone else who said they had read it somewhere.

The reason for the concern is the global warming potential (GWP) of these gases. When released they will contribute to climate change by accumulating in the upper atmosphere and not dispersing for some time. If, however, they are totally contained within their fridge circuits and are collected and destroyed harmlessly at the end of the plant life then their GWP is zero.

However, there will inevitably be some spill and accidental release. The quantity of this is also under review and varies between plant types and sizes. The good news is that the laws on F-gas installer training and compulsory certification have led to a greater awareness at the level that counts, namely the on-site engineers whose professionalism has grown exponentially over the past few years. Anecdotally, this has resulted in air conditioning systems that are found short of gas being an exception rather than a rule.

The rational way of looking at the subject is by considering a damage limitation scenario. Comparing one proposed installation with another may show that the plant incorporating an HFC will do less environmental damage because it is more efficient and uses less power input, thus saving carbon emissions at the point of electricity generation. This is straightforward to calculate for air conditioning and refrigeration since Annex B of EN378-1 2008 shows how to do a total equivalent warming impact (TEWI) assessment.

It has also been included in BREEAM 2011 where credits can be awarded for systems with high GWP refrigerants that have small volumes of leakage over their lifetime. It also relates to the efficiencies of HFC chillers and refrigeration plant when compared with the alternatives.

When it comes to laws, rules and regulations any statement with dubious provenance is always worth a second opinion from an official source rather than taking hasty action which may be regretted.

If a statement has wide and major industry changing implications it is unlikely to be announced in isolation. It will normally have been discussed widely for some time before and will have a period of grace, usually years in the case of refrigerants, before it is put into force.

If the rumours seem to originate from other official bodies (such as BRE, BSRIA, BREEAM etc), it is always worth checking with them also. Most manufacturers will also be willing and able to help as they need to pay particular attention to any future legislation that may impact on their core business.

Assistance on F-gas issues can be found on www.defra.gov.uk/fgas and/or by direct questions to fgas-support@enviros.com

• Simon Keel works for Daikin UK