Rittal offer advice on HCFC ban

From 1st January 2015 it will be illegal to use any recycled or reclaimed ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) R22 refrigerant gas to service cooling units.

R22 remains one of the most commonly used refrigerants in the UK used, in the past, to charge cooling units and chillers that provide electrical enclosure and process cooling. Rittal advise this legislation may dramatically affect users ability to service and maintain existing cooling products, which could result in costly downtime for important manufacturing processes.

Given that most systems leak to a certain degree, in practical terms this implies that any equipment that is of strategic importance to a business should not be using HCFCs by 2015. All current users of HCFC systems should develop a plan to manage operations without HCFCs. Doing nothing is not a sustainable option.

To avoid this damaging scenario, now is the time to check any cooling equipment and if they contain the soon-to-be banned R22 refrigerant, contact Rittal for advice on suitable replacement products. Rittal’s climate control range includes enclosure cooling units with outputs from 300 W to 4000 W and water chillers with capacities between 1 kW and 481 kW.

Further information at www.rittal.com