Understanding HVAC Legislation

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As a business it is essential that you understand UK air conditioning and refrigeration laws. The regulations state that: “If you own or operate equipment that contains ODS or F-gases, such as air-conditioning or refrigeration, you will need to manage your own equipment to prevent polluting the environment.”

In order to do this you must ensure that you recover, contain and destroy the refrigerant gasses in an appropriate manner. You must also ensure that checks are carried out on your air conditioning unit at least once a year for leaks in small units but if you are using a larger system then this needs to happen on a more regular basis. You can either do this yourself or get a professional to do it. The latter is the advised option so you are sure it was completed by a professional and mistakes are less likely to have been made. You mustn’t handle the refrigerants yourself, if this is required call a qualified technician to carry out the task for you. It is also important that you make sure you are aware of any imminent changes that will be occurring to the legislation so you can stay on top of it and up to date.

It is important to know what everything really means within the legislation so no mistakes are made. So if you are wondering what ODS stands for it is Ozone Depleting Substances. These are the chemicals that cause damage to the Ozone layer. As for F gases these are Fluorinated greenhouse gases which trap heat into the atmosphere and are a contributor to global warming. These are also more powerful than natural occurring greenhouse gases so pose more of a threat.

In order to reduce the use of these chemicals legislation is necessary and to ensure that you are following the legislation and not breaking laws, it is important to have a specialist to carry out the inspection at least annually.

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