Registration obligation
The obligation to register refrigeration and air conditioning equipment results from the Act of 15 May 2015 on substances that deplete the ozone layer and on selected greenhouse fluorinated gases (Journal of Laws 2015.881). Recently, an ordinance has also appeared in this matter, namely the Ordinance of the Minister of the Environment of January 8, 2016 on the Central Register of Fire Protection Equipment and Systems Operators (Journal of Laws 2016.56) and the Ordinance of the Minister of the Environment of January 14, 2016 on the template of the Fire Protection System Card and the method of their preparation and maintenance (Journal of Laws 2016.73).
Air conditioning, refrigeration and fire-fighting equipment which contain at least 3 kg of refrigerant fluorinated greenhouse gases or controlled substances must be registered. The registration obligation also applies to high voltage switchgear equipment containing 3 kg or more of fluorinated greenhouse gases or equipment containing 3 kg or more of fluorinated greenhouse gas solvents.
They must register, inter alia, by shops with refrigerated shelves, food processing plants, pharmacists, fruit growers and farmers storing fruit and vegetables in cooling chambers. Also, dairy farms, if they have milk coolers with a capacity of more than 1-1.5 thousand liters, are required to register. The exceptions are small everyday appliances such as refrigerators, freezers or small air conditioners.
A natural person, company or producer group is required to provide a Device Card or a Fire Protection System Card, which clearly shows the type and amount of the refrigerant. If the obligations are not met, environmental inspectors may impose fines of up to PLN 3,000.
The registration of the mentioned devices is automatically connected with the regular obligation of servicing by qualified installers who have completed the courses and are certified
F-gas. In addition, any repairs to the equipment should be carried out by certified installers. In addition, the registered devices will have every repair and leakage inspections on the card entered in the card, which will have to be carried out periodically. The frequency of inspections will depend on the amount of refrigerant, but cannot be less than once a year. The only exception will be devices with an electronic leak detector, in which case such inspections will be performed less frequently.
Equipment that contains less than 3 kg of HFC or labeled hermetically sealed equipment containing 6 kg of HFC, whose carbon dioxide equivalent charge would exceed the new 5t EqCO2 or 10t EqCO2 threshold for airtight, leakage checks may be carried out in accordance with the rules of the end of 2016 . On the other hand, the new principle of leakage inspections will appear as early as January 2017 and, according to it, the obligation of regular inspections will have to be carried out by owners of devices containing 1.28 kg of R404A (and not 3 kg as before), 2.82 kg of R407C, 2.74 kg R407F, 2.40 kg R410A, 1.26 kg R507 and for R134a - this threshold will increase to 3.50 kg of refrigerant