New EU Regulation 2024/573 on F-gases

What has changed specifically

The regulation retains the basic logic: mandatory leak testing based on refrigerant quantity in tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO₂eq): no obligation for up to 5 tCO₂eq, once every 12 months for 5 to 50 tCO₂eq, and once every 6 months for 50 to 500 tCO₂eq, with these intervals doubled for equipment fitted with automatic leak detection systems. Additionally, new provisions now cover equipment containing refrigerants listed in Annex II Section 1 of the regulation; companies should therefore re-examine older or non-standard installations that were previously excluded from the register. We describe the exact thresholds and examples in the article. When is air conditioning inspection mandatory.

Continued restrictions on high-GWP refrigerants

The regulation continues the long-term trend of gradually restricting refrigerants with high global warming potential (GWP) in the EU market. The difference between individual refrigerants is significant, R32 has a GWP of 675, while the older R410A has a GWP of 2 088, more than three times higher. In practice, this means that an R410A system reaches the threshold for mandatory inspection with a significantly smaller amount of refrigerant than an equally sized R32 system, and new installations are therefore increasingly switching to refrigerants with lower GWP.

What this means in practice for businesses

• Verify which tCO₂eq band your business equipment falls into and set the inspection intervals accordingly.

• Consider installing an automatic leak detection system. It doubles the inspection intervals.

• Maintain equipment records: logs of inspections, leaks and service interventions.

• Ensure that inspections are carried out only by persons holding a valid F-gas certificate.

• For larger systems with installed capacity over 70 kW, mandatory energy audits under the Energy Management Act must also be factored in. This is a separate legal obligation.

Certification remains key

Regardless of how the scope of regulations changes, one thing remains the same, only a person with a valid F-gas certification may carry out leak testing or any intervention on the refrigeration circuit. It pays companies to verify the certificate with the inspection supplier before ordering their first check. We describe how such an inspection proceeds step by step in the article. How refrigerant leak detection is carried out.

Where to start if the company has not yet maintained the register

For companies that still lack an overview of how many refrigeration circuits they operate and what refrigerant is used in them, it makes sense to start with an inventory of all air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment in the building: from office multisplits through server rooms to any cooling cabinets. For each circuit, the type and quantity of refrigerant must be determined and the tCO₂eq calculated to establish which band it falls into and how frequently it should be inspected. Only on the basis of this overview does it make sense to schedule regular inspections and set up the equipment records required by the regulation.

Extension to Annex II Section 1 in practice

The extension of the assessment to refrigerants listed in Annex II Section 1 of the Regulation will in practice most affect companies with older or non-standard installations that previously did not fall into any F-gas category and were therefore not subject to registration. The safest approach is to have a certified technician assess the condition of the equipment, verify the type and quantity of refrigerant, and classify the unit in the correct band, self-estimation without measurement is unreliable for older installations.