There were two main reasons for this. One, we didn’t employ any engineers to train me and two, the company I worked for was staffed entirely by graduates who knew the value of education.

So, when F Gas came in I championed its cause. I think all engineers should be trained to operate any refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment. These systems are complicated and need a lot of experience to master successfully. It must be a good thing that engineers are trained properly and regularly tested.

Last week during a meeting I met a contractor who clearly was not a fridge engineer by training. He was asking me scary questions about how best to braze pipe work, what pressures I would set my oxyacetylene up at, how to nitrogen purge and most scarily why he should bother reclaiming.

He made the point that when dumping refrigerant out of a system how would anyone know it wasn’t nitrogen? So why bother with the reclaim? And lets face it he would be out on the roof on his own so who’s going to see?

For my sins I have spent many years on roofs buggering about with units and never once have I been inspected. No one has asked what I was doing and the environment agency helicopters have never hovered overhead.

If I was irresponsible, I could take the attitude of this so called engineer and purge away.

Who is going to enforce this regulation and when?

I want it to work but it appears there are still idiots out there who don’t give a damn.