a) Supply and Use Controls for CFC Systems
New controls on supply and use of CFCs will have immediate effect on the refrigeration and air-conditioning market. From October 1 st 2000 there will be a ban on supply of CFCs. From 1st January 2001 there will be a ban on the use of these refrigerants for the maintenance of existing equipment. Provision for exemption to this ban is available for use in certain existing military applications, until 31 December 2008.
b) HCFC Use Controls, New Equipment
The previous EC Regulation (3093/94) already has a number of end use controls that are repeated in the new EC Regulation. This means there is already a ban on the use of HCFCs in the manufacture of new equipment for the following applications:
¨ non-confined direct evaporation systems
¨ domestic refrigerators and freezers
¨ motor vehicle, tractor and off-road vehicle or trailer air conditioning systems
¨ road public-transport air-conditioning
¨ rail transport air conditioning applications
¨ public and distribution cold stores and warehouses
¨ equipment of 150 kW and over shaft input
The new EC Regulation introduces further use controls. The use of HCFCs will be banned for the manufacture of new equipment in all refrigeration and air-conditioning applications from 1st January 2001 except for 2 temporary exemptions:
¨ the ban is delayed until 1 st July 2002 for fixed air-conditioning equipment with a cooling
capacity of less than 100 kW
¨ the ban is delayed until 1 st January 2004 for reversible air-conditioning/heat pump systems.
(In this section, reference to CFCs includes Refrigerant 13B1, which is a Halon.)
c) HCFC Use Controls, Existing Equipment
New controls are being introduced related to the use of HCFCs in the maintenance of refrigeration and air conditioning systems manufactured prior to the relevant manufacture ban. There will be a ban on the use of virgin HCFCs from 1 st January 2010 and a ban on the use of all HCFCs, including recycled materials, from 1 January 2015.
d) Recovery & Destruction
With immediate effect, all ODS used in refrigeration and air conditioning equipment must be recovered during servicing and maintenance of equipment or prior to dismantling or disposal of equipment. After 1 st January 2001 recovered CFCs must be destroyed by an approved technology. Recovered HCFCs can either be destroyed or can be re-used until 2015. This does not apply to domestic refrigerators and freezers on disposal until 1 st January 2002.
e) Leakage Prevention
The new EC Regulation strengthens requirements for the prevention of leakage of ODS refrigerants from systems. All precautionary measures practicable must be taken in order to prevent and minimize leakage.
An important new rule is that fixed equipment containing ODS, which has a refrigerating fluid charge greater than 3 kg must be checked annually for leakage.
To ensure that recovery and leakage issues are properly dealt with by refrigeration technicians the Regulation calls for each Member State to set a minimum qualification level for all personnel servicing and maintaining equipment and handling refrigerants. This must be done by the end of 2001.
f) Trade Controls
A number of trade controls will influence the import and export of refrigeration and air-conditioning products that contain ODS.