Australia have officially adopted five new international standards for refrigeration safety, superseding the AS/NZS 1677 series.
Standards Australia stated in their media release, which was published yesterday, that significant changes have been made to refrigeration standards, with the following now published and available:
AIRAH’s Executive Manager–Government Relations and Technical Services, Phil Wilkinson, explained the significance of the new standards in the media release.
“The adoption of these standards is a really important step as the HVAC&R industry transitions to a low emission future.
“This weekend saw the announcement that a global agreement had been reached on an HFC phase down and this international alignment of standards supports our shift away from HFC refrigerants and towards low global warming refrigerant alternatives.
“The HVAC&R industry strategy to transition to low emissions, PRIME, identified very early on that AS/NZS 1677 need to be reviewed. Standards Australia in response to stakeholders’ needs, worked closely with industry and government and supported PRIME to achieve this major milestone.”
Standards Australia released the five new Australian/New Zealand Standards for public comment in July 2015. The Standards were developed by the Standards Australia Technical Committee ME-006, Refrigeration. The Committee comprised of representatives from the refrigeration industry, retailers, government, emergency services and public health and safety officials.The Standards were open for two rounds of public comment which ran from July 2015 until May 2016.
The media release also states that as direct or modified adoptions of international standards, AS/NZS ISO 817 supersedes AS/NZS 1677.1: 1998, Refrigerating systems–Refrigerant classification and the AS/NZS 5149 series supersedes AS/NZS 1677.2: 1998, Refrigerating systems–Safety requirements for fixed applications.
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