Guide 4 of 6
The machine
Which licence lets someone repair a commercial fridge?
The sealed circuit that holds every temperature line answers to a law of its own. Only a licensed person may open it, and a business that buys, stores or disposes of refrigerant needs an authorisation in its own name.
General information, published by Dotto. For your own premises, check with the agency that regulates your business.
The person who opens the system
The starting point is on the National Environmental Protection Agency's page for technicians: a Refrigerant Handling Licence is needed to do anything with a regulated refrigerant that could cause leakage, and that includes work on the components of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. Handling regulated refrigerant without a licence is an offence, and the agency's page for consumers says it is an offence for anyone else to handle fluorocarbon refrigerants.
The agency's safety page spells out who is caught: anyone handling fluorocarbon refrigerants, including halocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons and HFCs, must hold an appropriate refrigerant handling licence, and a person who handles them without one is committing an offence. It goes further for the end of a system's life: any individual, including a repairer or dismantler, who removes, handles or substitutes an HFC, hydrochlorofluorocarbon, chlorofluorocarbon or halon from refrigeration and air conditioning equipment must be licensed, and licences come from the Australian Refrigeration Council or the Fire Protection Industry board.
The council is the body to know by name: the agency's technicians page says the Australian Refrigeration Council administers the regulations. Its licence types page explains that there are different classes of refrigerant handling licence, and which one a person needs depends on what they work with. The full class for this trade, RAC01, covers refrigeration and air conditioning work and the handling of refrigerant anywhere outside the automotive trade; the automotive class is for equipment fitted to a vehicle cabin.
One qualification sits beside the licence. The Commonwealth Regulations do not require a refrigerant handling licence for handling natural refrigerants such as hydrocarbons, but the agency warns that strict standards and procedures apply to flammable refrigerants, that they vary between states and territories, and that the relevant authorities should be consulted. Work on any refrigerant, and on the equipment itself, also has to meet state and territory requirements, including work health and safety, which is a state and territory responsibility.
The business that buys and holds the gas
The licence is not the only authorisation in the room. The agency's page for businesses says regulations apply to acquiring, possessing or disposing of regulated refrigerant, and a business doing any of those things needs to hold a Refrigerant Trading Authorisation. The council's page for the authorisation adds the instrument behind it: under the Regulations, anyone buying, storing or disposing of fluorocarbon refrigerant has to hold one.
The Regulations themselves put it as a prohibition: a person must not acquire, possess or dispose of bulk refrigerant unless they hold a refrigerant trading authorisation, an RAC equipment manufacturing authorisation, or fall within one of the other listed categories. So the word "bulk" does some work: the same instrument defines bulk refrigerant as refrigerant other than halon, but not refrigerant contained in equipment, which means the gas already sealed inside a unit is not a purchase of bulk gas.
There are three types of trading authorisation, and the council describes which suits whom. The most common suits a business or sole trader that acquires, stores or disposes of refrigerant other than halon: wholesalers, refrigeration and air conditioning businesses, automotive businesses, sole traders and contractors. The restricted one, the RRTA, is for businesses that recover refrigerant from RAC equipment, store it and dispose of it; the likeliest to need one are firms that recycle metal or auto parts, and waste management businesses. The agency's page adds the limit that matters on a job site: a holder of a restricted authorisation may not purchase or otherwise acquire bulk refrigerant.
Two servicing duties sit alongside the paperwork. The agency's material for technicians is that a business must ensure its leak detectors, vacuum pumps and recovery units are maintained and its containers checked for leaks, and that any leak is fixed before a system is recharged. Both are about the same thing the licences are about: keeping the refrigerant inside the circuit.
The electrical side
The trade licence is a third check, and it belongs to the state. New South Wales is the worked example here. Its government lists air conditioning and refrigeration work, except plug-in appliances, among the specialist work that needs a licence, and specialist work needs one regardless of its cost. The state's page for the trade is blunt about when: you must have a licence or certificate before you can do air conditioning and refrigeration work in NSW, including any associated electrical wiring that would otherwise be done by an electrician, and carrying out that work without one is a breach of the Home Building Act 1989.
Read beside the two refrigerant licences, the answer in New South Wales to "who is allowed to fix it", for a system holding a fluorocarbon refrigerant, is three checks deep: the technician's refrigerant handling licence, the business's trading authorisation if it buys, stores or disposes of refrigerant, and the state's trade licence for the work itself.
Three checks, side by side
| Check | Who holds it | Where it is checked |
|---|---|---|
| Refrigerant handling licence | The technician who opens the circuit. A licence is needed for anything that could cause leakage. | The Australian Refrigeration Council keeps a licence check page. |
| Refrigerant Trading Authorisation | The business that acquires, possesses or disposes of refrigerant; the Regulations require it. | The Australian Refrigeration Council, which issues the three types of authorisation. |
| Trade licence for air conditioning and refrigeration work (NSW) | The tradesperson or business doing the work, which in NSW includes the associated electrical wiring. | The NSW Government page for the licence, which states the Home Building Act requirement. |
Before the work starts
The Australian Refrigeration Council's advice is to check rather than assume: ask to see the licence before the work begins, because a technician who does not hold one may be operating illegally. The tick beside a name in the register means the business or technician is authorised for the work its licence class covers, which can include installing, servicing and repairing fridges, freezers and air conditioners. The agency points to the same register: it says the council provides a full list of licensed technicians at lookforthetick.com.au.
What a licensed technician brings is the reason the rule exists. The agency's page for consumers says only licensed technicians can handle refrigerants, and that they have the expertise to ensure systems are correctly sized, sited, installed, charged and maintained, to prevent leaks and minimise energy costs, and that a technician holding a refrigerant handling licence has the training and skills to minimise the emission of these refrigerants to the atmosphere.
The food question and the machine question meet in one place: a repair is finished when the cabinet holds its line again, and Cool room temperature is the guide for what that line is.