Significant changes have been made to refrigeration standards, with the following now published and available:

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•  AS/NZS ISO 817:2016, Refrigerants — Designation and safety classification

• AS/NZS 5149.1:2016, Refrigerating systems and heat pumps - Safety and environmental requirements - Part 1: Definitions, classification and selection criteria

• AS/NZS 5149.2:2016, Refrigerating systems and heat pumps - Safety and environmental requirements - Part 2: Design, construction, testing, marking and documentation

• AS/NZS 5149.3:2016, Refrigerating systems and heat pumps - Safety and environmental requirements - Part 3: Installation site

• AS/NZS 5149.4:2016, Refrigerating systems and heat pumps - Safety and environmental requirements - Part 4: Operation, maintenance, repair and recovery

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Phil Wilkinson, Executive Manager–Government Relations and Technical Services at the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH), explained the significance of these publications.

“The adoption of these standards is a really important step as the HVAC&R industry transitions to a low emission future. This weekend saw the announcement that global agreement had been reached on an HFC phase down and this international alignment of standards supports our shift away from HFC refrigerants and towards low global warming refrigerant alternatives.

“The HVAC&R industry strategy to transition to low emissions, PRIME, identified very early on that AS/NZS 1677 needed to be reviewed. Standards Australia in response to stakeholders’ needs worked closely with industry and government and supported PRIME to achieve this major milestone,” said Mr Wilkinson.

As direct or modified adoptions of international standards, AS/NZS ISO 817 supersedes AS/NZS 1677.1:1998, Refrigerating systems - Refrigerant classification and the AS/NZS 5149 series supersedes AS/NZS 1677.2:1998 Refrigerating systems - Safety requirements for fixed applications.

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