Calculating the equipment charge as CO2 equivalent

New guidance from GOV.UK: Fluorinated gases and ozone-depleting substances: how to do business from 1 January 2021

Each separate piece of equipment will have its own equipment charge. It used to be the number of kilograms of gas in the system that was important for deciding the actions required for servicing and maintenance of a refrigeration or air conditioning system.

This has changed and it is now a measure of the effect the F-gases in the system could have on the atmosphere that is important. This is calculated by working out the quantity of CO₂ that would have to be released to have the same warming effect on the atmosphere as the contents of the system.

This is known as the CO₂ equivalent of the F-gas.

The CO₂ equivalent of the equipment charge is calculated using:

• the quantity of F-gases in the equipment in kg
• the global warming  potential (GWP) of the F-gases in the system.

Different F-gases have different global warming potential. This relates to its ability to absorb energy and add to the warming of the atmosphere. Two pieces of refrigeration equipment that have a similar capacity for refrigerant can contain different F-gases. If released, the impact on the atmosphere could be significantly different

The charge is calculated by multiplying the number of kilograms of F-gas by the global warming potential of the specific gas in the system.

Global warming potential of greenhouse gases, including typical F-gases. The F-gases are shaded.

Example: Warming potential of 1kg of different gasses

1kg of HFC-134a is equal to 1.43 tonnes of CO₂

1kg of R-404A is equal to 3.92 tonnes of CO₂

1kg of PFC-14 is equal to 7.39 tonnes of CO₂

Example: 5 tonne CO₂ equivalent threshold

5 tonnes of CO₂ is equal to:

• 3.5 kg of HFC-134a
• 1.27 kg of R-404A (HFC blend)
• 0.68 kg of PFC-14

GOV.UK: Calculate the carbon dioxide equivalent quantity of an f-gas