Technical Support 

Document

Description of data reported in 2013 to the 

California Air Resources Board’s Refrigerant 

Management Program

October 5, 2015

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Stratospheric Protection Division

Office of Atmospheric Programs

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20460
In the development of the proposed rule, Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Update to the Refrigerant 

Management Requirements under Section 608 of the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection 

Agency examined refrigeration system service records submitted to the California Air Resources Board 

(CARB) as part of its Refrigerant Management Program (RMP). This document describes the data set that 

was used.

CARB adopted the RMP in 2009 as a part of the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32). 

The purpose of the RMP is to reduce emissions of high-GWP refrigerants from stationary, nonresidential refrigeration equipment and from the installation and servicing of stationary refrigeration 

and air-conditioning appliances using high-GWP refrigerants. Effective January 1, 2011, facilities with 

refrigeration systems containing more than 50 pounds of refrigerant must conduct periodic leak 

inspections, promptly repair leaks, and keep onsite records. Beginning January 1, 2012, facilities with 

systems containing more than or equal to 200 pounds must report annually through CARB’s online 

reporting tool on leak inspections, repairs, and purchases of high-GWP refrigerants.

(http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/rmp/rmp.htm)

This document describes data reported to CARB under the RMP for the 2013 calendar year. The data 

include annual reports for facilities with refrigeration systems containing a full charge greater than or 

equal to 200 pounds. Although reporting is not required for refrigeration systems containing a full 

charge between 50 and 200 pounds, some facilities have chosen to track leak inspections and 

maintenance records for these systems through CARB’s online reporting tool as well. For the 2013 

calendar year, approximately 600, 42,000, and 4,600 leak event records were reported for small, 

medium, and large refrigeration systems, respectively. 

Using these service records, EPA determined the distribution of systems based on their leak rates. Some 

characteristics of the distribution are shown in Figure 1.
2 October 5, 2015

Figure 1. Percentage of systems reporting to CARB in 2013 with various leak rates.

As shown in Figure 1, a majority of systems had annual leak rates under 20 percent. On the other end of 

the distribution, some systems had leak rates well above 100 percent, with new refrigerant added to the 

system during the year, in some cases many times, as refrigerant continued to leak out. Over 20% of 

systems reporting had leak rates above 35 percent. 
3 October 5, 2015

Figure 2 shows a distribution of the number of times refrigerant was added to each system. Over 200 

systems had refrigerant added five or more times. One system had 21 refrigerant additions, and another 

had 22 additions.

Figure 2. Number of Refrigerant Additions to a Single System

2,926

1,377

672

346

178 110 70 33 21 20 20

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10+

#

of syste

ms

# of refrigerant additions
4 October 5, 2015

As seen in Figure 3, most systems reporting to CARB contained HCFC-22 or R-404A.

Figure 3.