When we discuss this regulation its important to remember what it has been introduced for.

The whole aim is to reduce the amount of refrigerant that ends up in the atmosphere due to bad practice and leaks. Refrigerant is hideous stuff when it gets into the atmosphere; one kg of R410A has the same global warming impact on the environment as driving a family car 10000 km.

But what happens if the F gas regulation doesn't work?

The EU are monitoring the quantity of refrigerant sold all across Europe. They hope to see a fall as the new regulation is implemented. If the quantity doesn’t fall the politicians will have to take a closer look at why this is. They have already agreed to do this in 2011. Just for a second think about what they will do if the Fgas is deemed a failure. Of course the regulations will be tightened which means more inspection even more training etc.

But remember in 2006 there was a vague threat that they would ban 400 series refrigerants outright. You can bet this will be top of the agenda again. A world without the 400s. What would that be like and what would that mean to the fridge engineer of today?

All new refrigerants have one common characteristic -they are all too dangerous to pump into and around buildings either because they are flammable or have too high pressures. So without the 400 refrigerants you can forget splits, VRF etc. This means the resurgence of secondary refrigerants which means lots of roof mounted chillers running new 'safe' refrigerants.

So the choices are simple embrace the new regulation, reduce leakage and do your bit or start learning everything you can about chillers.

Don’t say you weren’t warned……