Before the Performance Period

Ensure that your refrigerant management program adheres to the regulations and guidelines specified under the Clean Air Act, Title VI, Rule 608. Refer to the EPA’s summary Web page for more information on the regulatory requirements, including information on venting restrictions, service practice requirements, technician certification, and recordkeeping requirements. (See Resources.)

Refrigerant management best practices should include clear and simple procedures for recording and collecting refrigerant recharge data for each piece of equipment.

Reduce total leakage of CFC-based refrigerants over the remaining life of the unit to less than 30% of its refrigerant charge. 

Reduce annual CFC-based refrigerant leakage to 5% or less. Refer to the Refrigerant Inventory in the Documentation Toolkit for help calculating annual leakage rates. 

Develop a refrigerant management program to minimize leakage of CFC-based refrigerants, if you have them, and employ equipment maintenance best practices.

Equipment vendors are qualified to perform these analyses and are usually willing to perform them for free, so check with them first. In general, any HVAC engineer is qualified to perform the economic analysis.

Remember that the economic analysis must investigate both conversion and replacement scenarios. Many project teams mistakenly complete only half of the analysis.

Replacement or conversion of a chiller is considered not economically feasible if the simple payback of the work will take longer than 10 years.

Alternatively, if an economic analysis shows that neither conversion nor replacement of the base building systems is feasible, the CFC phase-out plan is not required.

The CFC phase-out plan must replace base building systems or convert the equipment so that it can use a non-CFC refrigerant. The phase-out procedures must be completed within five years of the end of the project’s performance period.