By Bournemouth Air Conditioning. Published .
Anyone who installs, services, repairs or decommissions air conditioning in Great Britain must hold an F-Gas qualification, and a company doing that work on equipment it does not own must hold F-Gas company certification. Asking about both before work starts takes two minutes.
Here is what the two certificates are, who issues them and what to ask.
Why air conditioning has its own rules
Air conditioning systems contain refrigerants that are fluorinated greenhouse gases, known as F gases. If they leak or are vented to the air, they add to global warming. The F-Gas rules control who can handle them, how systems are checked for leaks and what happens to the gas when a system is removed.
In England the rules are regulated by the Environment Agency. Scotland and Wales have their own regulators.
Two certificates: the engineer and the company
There are two separate requirements, and you want to know about both.
Personal qualification. Every engineer who handles F gas must hold a personal F-Gas qualification. For air conditioning this is commonly the City and Guilds 2079 award, which has both a written and a practical assessment.
Company certification. According to GOV.UK, a company, including a sole trader, must be certified to install, repair, maintain or decommission stationary air conditioning, refrigeration or heat pump equipment operated by someone else. To get it, the company has to show it employs enough trained staff and has a written procedure for handling F gas. Certification must be renewed every three years.
GOV.UK lists three certification bodies for refrigeration and air conditioning companies:
- Refcom Certification Ltd.
- F-Gas Register (Quidos).
- Bureau Veritas UK Ltd.
A certified company will have a certificate number from one of these bodies.
What to ask before work starts
- Which body certifies your company, and what is the certificate number?
- Is the engineer doing the job personally F-Gas qualified?
- Will you register the manufacturer's warranty, and what servicing does it require?
- Will I get a record of the refrigerant type and the amount in the system?
- If you are removing an old system, how will the refrigerant be recovered?
A genuine installer will answer these without fuss. If the answers are vague, or you are told certification is not needed for a small job, look elsewhere. If you want to confirm a certificate, contact the body that issued it.
Warning signs
- No company certificate number, or reluctance to give one.
- An offer to keep topping up a system that loses gas, without finding the leak.
- No paperwork showing the refrigerant type and amount after an install or repair.
- An old system removed with no mention of how the refrigerant was recovered.
- A suggestion that certification does not matter because the job is small.
Why it matters to you
Your warranty. Manufacturer warranties on air conditioning are generally conditional on installation by a qualified engineer, and many also require regular servicing. An install by someone without F-Gas certification can leave you without cover. Check your own warranty terms.
Your system. Installing air conditioning involves pressure testing, evacuating the pipework and charging refrigerant. Getting those steps wrong leads to leaks and poor performance that may not show up for months.
The law. Refrigerant must be recovered, not vented, and leaks on larger systems must be found and repaired. If you run a business, some of the legal duties for leak checks and records fall on you as the operator, which is covered on our commercial air conditioning page.
Leak checks and servicing intervals are explained in our guide on how often air conditioning should be serviced.
Our own certification
We are F-Gas registered, and we are happy to give you our certification details before any work is booked. Ask any engineer for theirs, including us.
Book a survey or service
We install, service and repair air conditioning in Christchurch, Bournemouth, Poole and across Dorset. See air conditioning installation, air conditioning servicing or air conditioning repairs, or call 07910 686513.
Related services: Air conditioning installation, Air conditioning servicing, Air conditioning repairs.