ITV Yorkshire is the home of many programmes including Emmerdale, Touch of Frost, Heartbeat, The Royal and Countdown, and behind the scenes there is a strong infrastructure in place to ensure that these programmes are beamed throughout the UK.

This infrastructure has many key components which are dependant on adequate and resilient cooling systems. That’s why the threat of the HCFC phase out was taken seriously.

What was this threat? The risk was that they would not be able to maintain and service the equipment in the future as proposed stock levels of reclaimed HCFC’s would not match the demand. This would cause delays to repairs, increase downtime of essential equipment and increase the risk of loss of business operation.

Counting back from the new R22 phase out date of 1 January 2010, a three year plan was adopted to first carry out a feasibility study and then work on the findings and bring the whole estate to a HCFC-free status.

Process followed

First was the asset list. This was updated to confirm the current condition, age and refrigerant basis of all types of cooling and heat pump equipment
ITV commissioned JRS Consulting Ltd who worked closely with Temperature Control to compile a detailed list of the assets. It was also recognised that whilst this asset list was being compiled it would be worthwhile to gain further insight on the condition, age and application of the plant. From this a detailed risk assessment could be made.

This register was essential to moving forward; without this the whole projected plans could not have been made. Once completed the next step was the compilation of option proposals and their budget costings for upgrading the plant.

Making the Decision

The plant was first looked at from an engineering point of view.

• Was the plant in a good condition, what was the age, can they still get parts and service the plant.
• What was the application of the plant; was it used for critical cooling, what would the risk be if this equipment failed.
• Is it running for 24 hrs a day or for only 2 hrs? Is there a back system in critical areas?

From answers to these questions a budget plan was formulated with recommendations to implement the R22 phase out.

This data was combined within an internal assessment of site specific operational aspects such as:

• The future business strategy and planning of the site was looked at; would the equipment in certain areas still be needed. Would it be as critical in the future?
• What budgets were available. It is relatively easy to get funding to replace faulty equipment; it’s a lot harder to obtain budgets on upgrades on fully operational equipment.

ITV were now in a position to formulate an overall phase-out action plan.

The Options

Having recognised the need act an early stage ITV reviewed the limited options available

1. Strip out the plant and install new, including new pipe work and electrical services.
2. The asset list highlighted that some of the equipment was at its end of its operational life and these systems were replace with new.
3. Retrofit with R407C refrigerant.
4. R407C was a proven refrigerant and widely used on site, however to retrofit in to existing HCFC systems, the minerals oils used in the systems needed to be flushed out and replaced with synthetic.
5. This method was adopted for some DX condensers that were in need of upgrade. The internal AHU was still in good working order and this became a more economical option compared to the full replacement of plant.
6. Use a replacement refrigerant from the ISCEON Range by DuPont.
7. One of the downsides of using R407C as a retrofit refrigerant on existing HCFC systems is the requirement to change the oil from a mineral to a synthetic type. This can increase the time to change the refrigerant, which increases both cost and potential disruption and downtime to the operation of the plant.
8. An alternative was needed to use on equipment that didn’t need a hardware upgrade. The ISCEON products offered use with mineral oil and although untried on site, had an increasingly proven record in the field.
9. Various OEMs of the equipment used on across the sites were approached and all but one, advised that they would not support the replacement refrigerants.

The Solutions

To move forward we needed not only to gain the ITV’s confidence, we needed to be sure that we were comfortable with the replacement refrigerants. We found this confidence through IDS Refrigeration and their close relationship with DuPont.

Working closely with them a system from each of the manufacturers was selected and trials were carried out over a period of 3 months to assess performance with ISCEON refrigerant R417A.

The refrigerant in each system was changed and after further tests and continued running, the results were successful.
This gave us all the confidence to move forward and since this initial time, we have converted or replaced the following R22 based air conditioning systems on the. ITV estate.

All the works were carried out without disruption to business, minimal downtime whilst meeting original budget plans and programme.

Lessons learned

Lessons learned from this:

1. Get the asset list done first
2. Plan and have a clear strategy from the beginning
3. Test any new proposals first on a small scale, only when the results have been successful embark on the full on programme. Do your research at the beginning to avoid problems at the end.
4. Start as early as you can so the works can be carried out a planned manner, rather than rushed and avoid the associated problems this can bring. It also avoids problems relating to:
   • It is estimated that only 20% of the required reclaim R22 refrigerant will be available after 2009.
   • It is proposed in new legislation that in July 2009, all companies working with refrigerants will need to be registered. At present only the REFCOM scheme introduced by the HVCA matches the criteria and only 25% of all air conditioning and refrigeration companies are members of this scheme. This will create a shortfall in available skilled labour.
   • New legislation also calls for all operatives working with refrigerants to have a new level of qualifications by 2011. This will be a minimum of an additional days training for qualified personnel with up to an additional three days for unqualified. Again reducing the available skilled labour.