Is your aircon installer DEFRA FGas compliant, asks on365?

IT and data centre managers testing or upgrading their data centres’ air conditioning are advised to check whether their equipment installers are still legally compliant with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)’s scheme for ensuring compliance with European regulations on handling and use of refrigerant gases. The statement comes from on365, a specialist in the planning, installing, management and optimisation of data centre infrastructure and utility services.

FGAS Support, DEFRA’s body that provides guidance for companies and individuals in achieving European Fluorinated Gas regulations (F-GAS) certification, has stated that 50 per cent of installation firms have yet to upgrade to full certification needed by July 4 this year.

To comply with F-GAS, all personnel involved in refrigerant gas installation, maintenance, servicing, checking and recovery needed to obtain “next stage” UK F-Gas qualifications from July 2011 at the latest.

 The F-GAS rules are designed to minimise environmental damage from refrigerant gases. Under the current regulations, any facility operating cooling equipment with a charge of between three and 30kg must test for leaks once a year. Twice yearly tests are needed for systems over 30kg. Installers must also log all equipment usage and leak tests and repairs and be qualified to handle refrigerant.

 Chris Smith, sales and marketing director, on365 says: “F-GAS regulations effectively imposed nation-wide training requirements on infrastructure, heating and ventilation installers several years ago and IT professionals should ensure they are working with suppliers who have full certification for the installation operations. Companies that employ non-certified installers may invalidate their own cooling infrastructure’s certification under growing regulation of data centre power and cooling infrastructures.”

Education needed if proposed ‘carbon budget’ to work

Energy and Climate secretary Chris Huhne’s commitment that the UK will achieve a 50% cut in carbon emissions by 2025 compared with 1990 levels met with broad criticism from businesses in the UK.

The proposed ‘carbon budget’ will run from 2023 to 2027, in an effort to meet legally binding emissions cuts of 80% by 2050. This will put the UK on target for a 60% reduction by 2030, making the targets on greenhouse gas reduction the most ambitious of any developed country. For the IT industry in particular, this proposal to reduce carbon emissions will be difficult to meet.

Greater education for the IT industry and businesses on the whole is required, in order to promote environmental awareness and cut costs. The new emissions targets demonstrate another step forward in changing the way the IT industry operates and to raise awareness of the effects on the environment. However, such dramatic objectives will not be easy to achieve and it is essential that the government provides the IT industry with the appropriate level of education to facilitate a change in processes in the sector and promote a more energy efficient method of working. It is also vitally important that the targets are achievable from a financial perspective.

Increasing regulation compliance from the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme is already challenging, and with the pressure of rising utility costs in this tough economic climate, IT managers need to be assured that these new targets can be met, whilst also reducing costs. Long term energy efficiency objectives are a positive step for industry as a whole, but in the here and now budgetary pressures mean that cost cutting will remain the key driver for UK businesses required to conduct greener business operations.