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EPA 608 Certification & Trade School Diplomas designed to get you into a job in less than 4 weeks. 

Regulation Review

EPA 608 Type 1 Chapter 2 (Take the full course)


In this module, we will review the key regulations of the HVAC industry. These regulations apply to all technicians who maintain, service, repair, or dispose of Type I equipment that could release refrigerant into the atmosphere.


1. CAA Regulations


Section 608 is part of the Clean Air Act and focuses on regulating ozone-depleting substances (ODS). ODS is how the EPA will refer to these refrigerants in their documents and updates. Recall that it is your responsibility

Technicians must have Section 608 certification in order to purchase refrigerants that are ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and their non-exempt substitutes.

So this sales restriction applies to CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, and HFOs.


Exempt substitutes are refrigerants that are considered by the EPA to be not harmful to the environment. An example of an exempt substitute is R-744, which is carbon dioxide, or CO2.


Small cans of non-exempt substitutes are not covered by the sales restriction. Small cans contain 2 lbs or less of non-exempt refrigerant. This exemption is mostly used for small cans of HFC-134a.


For example, if you do not have Section 608 certification, you can buy small cans of less than 2 lbs of HFC-134a.


As discussed in Core, there are additional requirements on recovery devices, recordkeeping, disposal, etc. If specific Section 608 regulations are unclear, feel free to reference our Core module on Section 608 Regulations.



2. Venting Prohibition


The Venting Prohibition is part of Section 608. Recall that venting means releasing refrigerants into the atmosphere. The Venting Prohibition states that it is illegal to intentionally vent ODS and their non-exempt substitutes.

To ensure that harmful refrigerants are not accidentally released, technicians need to recover refrigerants before servicing appliances. If we don’t do this, the refrigerant will be released into the atmosphere while we are working.


Technicians also need to use low-loss fittings to prevent loss of refrigerant from hoses.

Low-loss fittings work by blocking

the flow of refrigerant from leaving the hoses. Otherwise, refrigerant can be released through refrigerant hoses — this would be venting.


The EPA exempts refrigerants from the Venting Prohibition when it has determined that these refrigerants do not pose a threat to the environment. These include natural refrigerants — these are refrigerants that occur naturally in the atmosphere.


Natural refrigerants can be vented.

These include:

  • Hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants

  • R-744, which is carbon dioxide,

  • R-717, which is ammonia, and

  • R-728, which is nitrogen.

Trace gases that are used in leak detection are not considered refrigerants under the EPA’s refrigerant management policies. So they are considered exemptions to the Venting Prohibition.


Another example of acceptable venting is when we use nitrogen to pressurize or blow debris out of a system. Of course, all refrigerant in the system has to be recovered before we can do this. Note that we cannot put nitrogen into a system that is fully charged.


In this case, the refrigerant in the system has been recovered. So the nitrogen used in the system can be vented because it is not mixed with refrigerant. Any refrigerant left in the system would be at trace amounts that are not significant.



3. Conclusion

In this module, we reviewed Section 608 regulations including the Sales Restriction and the Venting Prohibition. We discussed which refrigerants are subject to these regulations, and also which ones are exempt.




Other References:


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