Who may break into the refrigerant circuit, the personnel categories I to IV, the company certificate, who may buy refrigerant, and why certification exists.
Match the qualification to the task
For covered F-gas equipment, a personnel certificate authorises specified activities. Check the refrigerant, equipment type, task and any charge limit before work starts. Plumbing, Gas Safe or product certification does not supply this separate permission.
For stationary refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps, and the listed refrigerated trucks and trailers, the personnel categories differ as follows:
- Category I: all listed activities, including installation, maintenance, servicing, repair, decommissioning, recovery and leak checking, without a charge-size limit.
- Category II: installation, maintenance, servicing, repair, decommissioning and recovery where the charge is less than 3 kg, or less than 6 kg for equipment labelled hermetically sealed. For leak checks that leave the circuit sealed, Category II has no charge ceiling.
- Category III: recovery only, using the same less-than-3 kg or less-than-6 kg labelled-hermetic limits.
- Category IV: leak checks that do not open the refrigerant circuit, without a charge-size limit.
Categories III and IV are different permissions: recovery-only is not a wider form of leak-check-only. Holding a certificate for longer does not extend its scope. Electrical switchgear and other equipment types have their own qualification routes.
When a company certificate is needed
A business installing, servicing, maintaining, repairing or decommissioning customers’ stationary RACHP equipment needs the relevant company certification as well as appropriately qualified personnel. The business certificate covers the undertaking; it does not qualify every employee. The service-company certificate is renewed every three years under the GB guidance.
A business working only on its own equipment does not need that company certificate, but the personnel must still be qualified for the work. Company certification is also not required for every equipment category, such as refrigerated trucks and trailers. Check the actual activity: the two-certificate rule does not apply to every F-gas job.
Verify subcontractors’ credentials and keep the relevant records. A certificate shows scope, not that every part of a particular installation was done correctly.
Training and defined exceptions
An enrolled trainee may use the personnel-certificate exemption for up to 24 months in total carrying out the activities. The course must lead to the relevant certificate, and a person certified for that activity must supervise and take full responsibility for correct work. The trainee may not work independently merely because they are employed by a certified company.
There are other tightly defined exceptions, including suitably qualified brazing, soldering or welding under certified supervision and certain recovery work at authorised waste-treatment premises. These have their own conditions; they are not general permission for uncertified servicing. A customer’s consent or a signature after the job does not create an exemption.
Purchasing and transport
For regulated installation and servicing uses, buyers can be certified individuals or businesses employing them. An operator with qualified in-house staff may buy gas without a company certificate where it is not required. Sellers verify the relevant evidence and retain the prescribed sales records. Owning a system or having a trade account is not enough.
Collecting or delivering sealed cylinders is not the same activity as charging or recovering refrigerant. Transport has its own safety rules and does not authorise equipment work. Non-intrusive statutory leak checks also need the relevant qualification even though they do not open the circuit.
Refrigerant boundaries
An HFC-containing split heat pump requires the appropriate F-gas personnel scope for its regulated circuit work. A propane system lies outside F-gas certification but still needs suitable competence and procedures for its flammability and other hazards. Pure Annex II HFOs and HFC-containing blends also have different GB regulatory scope. Ordinary water-side connections on a sealed monobloc do not access the refrigerant circuit.
City & Guilds 2079 provides pathways aligned with Categories I to IV, assessed through a practical assignment and an online multiple-choice examination.