What an F-Gas logbook must contain

What must be recorded

For each system above the leak checking threshold:

Who holds it

This is the practical issue that causes most difficulty.

The obligation to maintain records rests on the operator. The contractor carries out the work and provides the information, and the record is yours.

What goes wrong:

1. The contractor keeps the only copy in their own system. When the relationship ends, so does your access.
2. Records are emailed and scattered across inboxes, with no single authoritative source.
3. A contractor change loses the history entirely, because nobody asked for it at handover.
4. The site changes hands and the records do not transfer.
5. A managing agent changes, and nobody thinks to ask.
6. Nobody knows the records were required, so none exist.

Keep your own copy. A folder per system, on site or in your own document system, updated after every visit. It costs nothing and it is the difference between demonstrating compliance and asserting it.

If you are changing maintenance contractor, ask for the F-Gas logbooks formally before the relationship ends. They are your records and you are entitled to them – see property management.

Retention

Records must be retained for the period specified in the regulations and made available to the competent authority on request. In England that authority is the Environment Agency.

Beyond the legal minimum, there are good practical reasons to keep them longer:

• Building sale or lease. Due diligence routinely asks for plant records, and their absence is a negotiating point.
• Insurance, particularly after an incident.
• Asset management. A record of charge added over the years is the clearest evidence of which plant is leaking chronically and should be replaced rather than repaired.
• Contractor accountability. A history lets you see whether a recurring leak was ever properly fixed.
• Warranty claims.

Making it usable

A logbook that satisfies the regulation and cannot be found quickly is only half useful. What works:

1. One record per system, not per siteEach system has its own charge, its own CO2e, its own interval and its own history.
2. A stable identifier per systemA number or a label, physically on the unit as well as in the record. Vague descriptions like ‘the one on the roof’ fail as soon as a second unit is installed.
3. Front sheet with the key factsLocation, make, model, serial, refrigerant type, charge, CO2e, required check interval, whether leak detection is fitted. Everything an inspector or a new contractor needs on one page.
4. Chronological entries after itEvery visit, every check, every addition or recovery.
5. A site summaryListing all systems with their next check dates, so the calendar is visible at a glance.
6. Kept somewhere findableOn site, or in a document system somebody other than one individual can access.
7. Updated after every visitNot at year end from memory.

Labelling

Separate from the logbook and frequently missed. Equipment containing fluorinated greenhouse gases must be labelled with the refrigerant type and the quantity, and where relevant the CO2e.

It matters practically as well as legally: the label is how the next engineer, a new contractor, or a purchaser’s surveyor establishes what is in the system without opening it. A unit whose label has faded, been painted over or been removed is a unit whose charge has to be reconstructed from documentation that may not exist.

If you are surveying a site, photographing every nameplate is the single most useful thing you can do, and it takes minutes.

Starting from nothing

Many sites have no records at all, frequently because nobody knew they were required. The position is recoverable.

1. Survey every system and record type, charge and location.
2. Photograph every nameplate.
3. Calculate CO2e and establish the required interval for each.
4. Create a logbook per system, with a front sheet.
5. Note honestly that records begin from this date. You cannot recreate checks that did not happen, and fabricating a history would be considerably worse than acknowledging the gap.
6. Begin the schedule and record from now on.
7. Ask your existing contractor for any historic records they hold, which may fill part of the gap.

A site that starts recording properly today is in a fundamentally different position from one that still is not, and that distinction is what matters.