Brief: ARI call for HFC regulations

The vice-president of engineering and research at the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI), Mark Menzer, (also the US delegate to the IIR), stated during the ARI Spring meeting that ARI would like the US Environmental Protection Agency to regulate HFC refrigerants as is the case with HCFCs so as to protect the continued use of HFCs and to encourage their responsible use in the US. The regulations of Section 608 of the Clean Air Act stipulate that building owners track, recycle and recover HCFCs, with violations resulting in fines of up to USD 32 000 a day. Section 608 also regulates HFCs but it only requires that they are not vented into the atmosphere. ARI hopes to encourage changes to ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 147-2002, Reducing the Release of Halogenated Refrigerants from Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Equipment and Systems. More specifically, he said that the ARI needs a method to test system leakage and permissible leakage levels appropriate to different types of equipment.