RACA Journal August 2023 | Page 47

www . refrigerationandaircon . co . za RACA Journal I August 2023 45
Responsible Refrigeration
BARNEY RICHARDSON
Barney Richardson is the director of South African Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors Association ( SARACCA ) and sits on various other boards within the HVAC industry , including the South African Qualifications and Certifications Committee for Gas ( SAQCC ) Gas .

SLOW-BURN REFRIGERATION PRACTITIONER REGISTRATION

By Barney Richardson
The registering with SAQCC Gas of air-conditioning and refrigeration installers and artisans continues to be a slow and frustrating process for both SARACCA and SAQCC Gas .

To date , only about 3 000 practitioners have been registered out of an estimated 6 000 people working in the airconditioning and refrigeration industry . These are people who work directly on the pressure portion of the refrigeration circuit and have an influence on the safety of the installation . The numbers are regrettably small considering that registration has been in force since 2009 .

The Pressure Equipment Regulation 2 specifically states that the regulations shall apply to the design , manufacture , operation , repair , modification , maintenance , inspection , and testing of pressure equipment with a design pressure equal to or greater than 50kPa , in terms of the relevant health and safety standard in the Regulations under section 44 of the OHS Act .
These regulations refer to an authorised person ; this means a practitioner who is registered as competent within the scope of refrigeration work for which SAQCC Gas is approved and
mandated by the chief inspector to register that person . A communiqué from SAQCC Gas states that persons who work on air conditioning or refrigeration or fuel gas or compressed gas systems and who are not formally registered with SAQCC Gas are not complying with the OHS Act and Pressure Equipment Regulations and shall be legally challengeable by law . Nonregistered persons working on gas systems raise serious concerns for users , clients and for themselves from a legal , financial and insurance perspective .
Consumers who are users of gas or gas systems or air conditioning or refrigeration systems need to ensure that only an authorised card-carrying gas practitioner is working on their installation and , should this not be the case , report this practitioner and contractor to the SAQCC Gas for further action .
The cards issued by SAQCC Gas to practitioners are classified by the area competence and gas type as follows :
• Authorised Refrigeration Gas Practitioner
• Authorised Natural Gas Practitioner
• Authorised Compressed Gas Practitioner
• Authorised Liquid Petroleum Gas Practitioner
There are two particular categories of competence for those persons working on installation and maintenance of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment . These are divided into those who might be termed as semi-skilled installers or apprentices who do not yet have a trade qualification and those who are artisans by qualification of a trade test and experience .
It is a requirement that a Certificate of Conformity be issued , and many contractors and installers are finding that the end users are asking for a CoC . There are an increasing number of installations that are not done by a competent and registered person . There have been a number of installations which have been found to be faulty and the client or user could not get satisfaction because the installer was not registered and there was no way of taking action against the person except to report the transgression to the Department of Employment and Labour for investigation and legal action . It is also time that the unit manufacturers and suppliers take some responsibility for the quality of installations and reduce the number of comeback calls and failure claims .
It is in everyone ’ s interest to become compliant with registration and to offer a quality service through being registered as an authorised competent person in terms of the Pressure Equipment Regulations . RACA

www . refrigerationandaircon . co . za RACA Journal I August 2023 45