In the Clean Air Act (CAA) the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has separated the certification for small appliances into the type 1 test. This is the start of the Discover-HVAC.com EPA section 608 type 1 course.
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Text Stephen Peters August 2016, updated November 2019
Type Ⅰ certification builds on the knowledge gained in the core test. The test is for technicians working with small appliances containing five pounds or less of refrigerant such as air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, and dehumidifiers.
To understand which types of appliances are classed as small appliances under the legislation known as section 608 it is useful to see the actual definition written into the law itself. For the purposes of the Type Ⅰ certification the law defines both what an appliance is, as well as what is considered to be a small appliance. As new refrigerants become available and old ones are phased out the section 608 laws are modified. International agreements also change for instance the Montreal protocol has undergone nine revisions since the original treaty. It is worthwhile to keep up to date with changes in the law even after you have passed the tests.
Congress enacted the Clean Air Act (CAA) a Federal statute, which laid out the broad programs of environmental law in the United States. It is section 608 of the CAA that establishes the emission reduction program and directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement it. The EPA does this by publishing Federal regulations that implement the will of Congress.
The part of the CAA that HVAC technicians fall under is Title VI Stratospheric Ozone Protection (CAA § 601-608; USC § 7671-7671q). As the act has had several amendments made to it since it last had a major revision enacted by Congress the current version is published as part of the US code (USC) Title 42, Chapter 85. Please note that the US code section numbers are different to the CAA sections numbers (e.g CAA section 608 is USC section 7671g).
In the USC (40 CFR Part 82, Subpart F) you will find both appliances and small appliances defined. You will need to remember these definitions for the test. The definitions are in §82.152.
§82.152 defines appliances as:
"Appliance means any device which contains and uses a class I or class II substance or substitute as a refrigerant and which is used for household or commercial purposes, including any air conditioner, motor vehicle air conditioner, refrigerator, chiller, or freezer. For a system with multiple circuits, each independent circuit is considered a separate appliance"
The EPA interprets this definition to include all air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment except that designed and used exclusively for military purposes.
§82.152 goes on to define small appliances as:
"Small appliance means any appliance that is fully manufactured, charged, and hermetically sealed in a factory with five (5) pounds or less of refrigerant, including, but not limited to, refrigerators and freezers (designed for home, commercial, or consumer use), medical or industrial research refrigeration equipment, room air conditioners (including window air conditioners, portable air conditioners, and packaged terminal air heat pumps), dehumidifiers, under-the-counter ice makers, vending machines, and drinking water coolers."
It is recommended that you perform a leak repair on small appliances, but this is not mandatory.
This lecture covers the recovery, vacuum, and leak repair requirements. It also covers recovery methods and techniques. As the video was published in 2016 some of the materiel is not fully up to date as detailed above, it still covers materiel you will nedd to know.
After January 1, 2018 any small appliance charged with an ozone depleting substance (ODS) or substitute refrigerant MUST have the refrigerant recovered before disposal. These refrigerants are also referred to as Class I or Class II refrigerants. The equipment used to recover the refrigerant must comply with the EPA recovery requirements. Simply put the equipment must recover either 80% or 90% of the refrigerant or evacuate the appliance to 4 inches of mercury vaccuum. The recovery equipment must fall under one of the following rules.
While you are unlikely to encounter recovery machines manufactured before 1993 now the EPA includes them in the rules as they are designed to properly remove ODS or substitute refrigerants not found in newer appliances. To fall under this rule the recovery machine must be manufactured or imported before November 15, 1993. It must be able to recover eighty percent (80%) of the refrigerant in the appliance regardless of whether the compressor is functional or not. The machine must also be capable of achieving a level of vacuum of 4 inches of mercury during evacuation. This must be verified with a properly calibrated pressure gauge for the machine to be considered certified.
This is the pre November 15, 1993 recovery machine definition in 40 CFR §82.158 for recovery equipment intended for use with small appliances:
"Equipment manufactured or imported before November 15, 1993, will be considered certified if it is capable of either recovering 80 percent of the refrigerant in the system, whether or not the compressor of the test stand is operational, or achieving a four-inch vacuum when tested using a properly calibrated pressure gauge."
If you are going to take the type Ⅱ, type Ⅲ, or EPA 609 MVAC test take note that this definition is only for type Ⅰ recovery equipment and is different from the other definitions within §82.158. You will need to learn the differences between the recovery equipment requirements for each test.
After November 15, 1993 the EPA started requiring equipment manufactuers to properly test recovery equipment. This was detailed in Appendix B1 to Subpart F of Part 82, which was largely based on the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) Standard 740-1993. ARI has since changed its name to the Air-Conditioning Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), and the AHRI 740 standard has been revised several times. This is the standard equipment manufatured or imported after November 15, 1993 but before September 22, 2003 is held to:
"Equipment manufactured or imported on or after November 15, 1993, may also be certified if it is capable of achieving a four-inch vacuum under the conditions of appendix B1 of this subpart, based upon ARI Standard 740-1993."
During 2003 the rules for recovery equipment were tightened further and equipment manufactures had to meet the updated AHRI 740-1995 standard. This applies to recovery equipment manufactured or imported after September 22, 2003 but before January 1, 2007:
"Equipment manufactured or imported on or after September 22, 2003, and before January 1, 2017, may also be certified if it is capable of achieving a four-inch vacuum under the conditions of appendix B2 of this subpart, based upon ARI Standard 740-1995."
Once again the EPA tightened the requirements for recovery equipment in 2017. Equipment manufactured after Janurary 1, 2017 must meet the following standard:
" Equipment manufactured or imported on or after January 1, 2017, may also be certified if it is capable of achieving a four-inch vacuum under the conditions of appendix B3 of this subpart (for non-flammable refrigerants), based upon AHRI Standard 740-2016 or appendix B4 of this subpart (for flammable refrigerants), based upon both AHRI Standard 740-2016 and UL 1963, Supplement SB, Requirements for Refrigerant Recovery/Recycling Equipment Intended for Use with a Flammable Refrigerant, Fourth Edition, June 1, 2011."
Recovery equipment that cannot be tested under the standards set out in (40 CFR §82.158 Standards for recovery and/or recycling equipment) can be certified by an approved third party testing organization. It must be able to evacuate the appliance to four inches of mercury and satisfy the EPA administrator that is equal or better than normal certified equipment. You are unlikely to encounter this type of equipment.
"Equipment used to evacuate any class I or class II refrigerant or any non-exempt substitute refrigerant from small appliances before they are disposed of may also be certified if it is capable of achieving a four-inch vacuum when tested using a properly calibrated pressure gauge."