ELLIS Training Works has now been running the City & Guilds 2079 F-Gas course since December, accumulating sufficient experience to give a first progress report.
'We were all apprehensive about the introduction of this qualification because it quickly became apparent that it would be very different from the 'old' safe handling qualifications that were first introduced to familiarise people with the recovery process,' said Ellis Training md, John Ellis.

'Modification in 1996 to take account of blended refrigerants and hydrocarbons, the total assessment process took about one hour. So far the C&G 2079 F-Gas assessment for Category 1 is taking about one hour for the on-line exam and about two to three hours per person for the practical assessment.'

The assessment specification is written into the Regulation as an annex and the qualification awarding bodies are made legally responsible to ensure that their qualification meets the standard. This also means that they are legally liable if qualifications don't meet the standard required.

'We have had a wide variety of engineers along to do this course,' John Ellis revealed. 'Most of them have opted to do the five-day course. They have come along with a variety of qualifications from raw novice to NVQ2, NVQ3 and ONC or HNC. Also with a wide range of experience from chillers, to splits on the ac side and from integral cabinets to supermarket systems on the refrigeration side, 'install only' people to service and maintenance and commissioning. All however have one thing in common, a desire to learn.'

And learn they have. According to John Ellis, so far even the most highly qualified and experienced people have said they have learned something or re-learned some of the basic principles that had previously been overlooked.

'We have discovered that much of the previous learning is superficial to say the least. People are often taught sufficient to pass their exams but unable to apply that knowledge.

Since the F-Gas qualification majors on reducing emissions of both refrigerant from the system and CO2 emission for the power station producing the electricity used by acr and heat pump systems then it is essential that engineers can carry out direct leak testing and perhaps even more importantly indirect leak testing. This latter requirement is where the majority of the training requirement is necessary.

After all, a tight system is not necessarily charged with the right amount of refrigerant. A high number of split ac systems for example do not leak, but suffer from excessive energy consumption and compressor failure because they do not have the correct amount of refrigerant.

We are finding that engineers are conscious of the need to ensure that systems are tight but less conscious of the need to 'tweak' them where possible to improve their energy efficiency.

We also find that the aforementioned superficial knowledge leads people to misdiagnose simple faults and having explored the basic principles more thoroughly they can significantly improve their diagnostic skills. An outcome that will pay off as we all become more aware of the need to reduce our energy consumption.