Meeting the R22 deadline
Users of R22-based cooling plant are being offered the opportunity to have such chillers replaced by modern state-of-the-art equipment so that the old plant can be reconditioned and exported to developing countries such as India. The scheme has been devised by Klima-Therm and Cool-Therm. The use of HCFCs in developing countries is permitted by the Montreal Protocol for 10 to 15 years after the phase-out being imposed by EU legislation. The financial benefits of selling on, rather than scrapping, R22 plant can result in a significant saving in capital outlay and deliver the ongoing benefits of modern and high-efficiency plant. Ian Mundie of Klima-Therm says, ‘Recent research suggests that up to 65% of all installations still depend on R22. That is an extremely high figure. From our own experience, we know that there is a huge amount of plant out there still running on R22.’ The use of new R22 for topping up systems comes into force in Europe in 15 months’ time. After 2014, topping up with R22 will be illegal — and this date might be moved forward.
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