Refrigerant compliance for food retail

The leak rules moved out of Part 82, and the 2026 date is the one that binds

The leak-repair obligations food retailers learned under Section 608 now sit in 40 CFR Part 84, Subpart C. Section 84.106 applies to an appliance with a full charge of 15 pounds or more where the refrigerant is a regulated substance, or a substitute with a global warming potential above 53 on the table in §84.64(b). Two carve-outs matter on a retail site: an appliance holding only an ozone-depleting substance is outside the section, and so is equipment in the residential and light-commercial air-conditioning and heat-pump subsector. The section states that it applies as of 1 January 2026. What did not move is the technician — §84.102 defines a certified technician by reference to 40 CFR 82.161 — so the person is credentialed under the older part while the deadline they work to is in the newer one.

• Full charge of 15 lb or more, of a regulated substance or a substitute above GWP 53.
• Applies from 1 January 2026 (§84.106(a)(4)).
• Excludes ozone-depleting-only appliances and the residential and light-commercial AC and heat-pump subsector.
• Technician certification still comes from 40 CFR 82.161.

Count circuits, not cases: what the rule treats as one appliance

The regulated unit is the appliance, and §84.102 defines it in a way that changes the arithmetic on a sales floor: a refrigerant-containing appliance is any device that contains and uses a regulated substance as a refrigerant, and where a device has multiple circuits, each independent circuit is a separate appliance. A parallel rack built from several independent circuits is therefore several appliances for the charge threshold, the leak-rate calculation, the inspection schedule and the retrofit trigger alike. The same section defines commercial refrigeration by subsector rather than equipment type — the retail food and cold storage warehouse subsectors — and names what retail food covers: supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants and other food service. That is why the 20 percent threshold attaches to the cases and walk-ins while a rooftop unit is measured against 10.

• Each independent circuit is a separate appliance under §84.102.
• Commercial refrigeration means the retail food and cold storage warehouse subsectors.
• Retail food expressly includes supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants.
• Cases and walk-ins sit at 20 percent; comfort cooling sits at 10.

Twenty, thirty and ten percent — recalculated every time gas goes in

The applicable leak rate at §84.106(c)(2) is 20 percent for commercial refrigeration, 30 percent for industrial process refrigeration, and 10 percent for comfort cooling, refrigerated transport and any other covered appliance of 15 pounds or more. The trigger is not an annual audit: the owner or operator must calculate the leak rate every time refrigerant is added, unless the addition immediately follows a retrofit or an installation, or qualifies as a seasonal variance. Two conventions apply to the first calculation after 1 January 2026 — the annualising method substitutes 365 days as the days since the last addition, the rolling-average method uses pounds added since that date — and a change of method is allowed only within §84.106(b)(3), which centres on acquiring a facility that used a different one.

• 20 percent commercial refrigeration; 30 percent industrial process; 10 percent for the rest.
• Recalculate on every addition, apart from retrofit, installation and seasonal-variance cases.
• First post-2026 calculation: 365 days annualised, or pounds added since 1 January 2026.
• A methodology change needs the conditions in §84.106(b)(3).

The inspection clock starts only after an appliance has already failed

This is the part most summaries get backwards. §84.106(g) requires leak inspections on an appliance that is exceeding its applicable leak rate, not on every appliance in the estate. Once that has happened the cadence divides at 500 pounds of charge. Commercial refrigeration and industrial process appliances holding 500 pounds or more are inspected every three months from the successful follow-up verification test, until four consecutive clean quarters are shown. Appliances holding 15 pounds or more but less than 500 are inspected annually, until a clean year is demonstrated. A certified technician does the work, all visible and accessible components are covered, and continuous monitoring displaces the interval — but only for the portion watched by an automatic leak detection system that is audited or calibrated annually.

• Inspections attach to appliances already over the applicable rate.
• 500 lb or more: quarterly until four clean quarters in a row.
• 15 lb to under 500 lb: annual until one clean year.
• Monitoring exempts the monitored portion only, and only while audited annually.

Thirty days to repair, ten days to verify, and a clock that stops when mothballed

Once an appliance is over its rate, §84.106(d) requires the leaks to be identified and repaired within 30 days of the addition that revealed the exceedance, or within 120 days where an industrial process shutdown is needed. A certified technician performs the inspection that locates them, and the repair is documented twice: an initial verification test inside the same window, and a follow-up test within 10 days of the successful initial test or of the appliance reaching normal operating conditions after an evacuation. Success is presumed if, over the 12 months after that follow-up test, no refrigerant is added or the inspections and detection system find nothing. The clocks suspend while an appliance is mothballed. Where parts are genuinely unavailable, §84.106(f) allows an extension to 30 days after delivery, capped at 180 days from the exceedance, or 270 with an industrial process shutdown.

• Repair within 30 days, or 120 where an industrial process shutdown is required.
• Initial verification inside the window; follow-up within 10 days of it.
• Twelve clean months presumes the repair held.
• Unavailable parts: to 30 days after delivery, capped at 180 or 270 days.

The chronic leaker, the March report and the retrofit-or-retire plan

Two escalation paths exist and they are separate. §84.106(j) covers the chronic leaker: an appliance holding 15 pounds or more that leaks 125 percent or more of its full charge in a calendar year must be reported to EPA by 1 March of the following year, with the information listed at §84.106(m)(4). The retrofit-or-retire plan is the other. §84.106(h) requires one within 30 days in three situations: the operator elects to retrofit or retire instead of repairing, takes no action to identify or repair leaks, or stays above the leak rate after the required repairs and verification. The plan names the appliance and location, the refrigerant and full charge, the replacement refrigerant and conversion procedure, and the disposition of recovered refrigerant and of the appliance, with a schedule of no more than one year. It is signed and dated by an authorised company official and kept at the site. Leaks already identified must still be repaired as part of any retrofit.

• 125 percent of full charge in a year: report by 1 March.
• Plan due within 30 days of the election, the inaction or the failed repair.
• Completion schedule capped at one year; signed, dated, held on site.
• A retrofit is not an alternative to repairing the leaks already found.

What may go into a new system is a different rule, and the supermarket date is 2027

Leak repair governs the plant you have; §84.54 governs what may be installed. Paragraph (a) bars manufacturing or importing listed products and paragraph (c) goes further — no person may install such a system, or have one installed through their position as designer, owner or operator. For supermarket systems, §84.54(c)(12)(i) sets 1 January 2027 as the date from which a system may not be installed using a refrigerant at a global warming potential of 1,400 or above, and §84.54(c)(12)(ii) tightens from 1 January 2032 to 150 for systems of 200 pounds or more that are not the high side of a cascade, 300 below 200 pounds, and 300 on a cascade high side. Stand-alone retail food units moved to 150 on 1 January 2025 and remote condensing units to 1,400 on 27 July 2026. §84.54(d) extends a date by a year where an approved building permit issued before 5 October 2023 specified the restricted refrigerant, and §84.54(e) treats first-time assembly from new or used components as an installation once charged.

• Supermarket systems: no refrigerant at GWP 1,400 or above from 1 January 2027.
• From 1 January 2032: 150 at 200 lb and above non-cascade, 300 below that and on a cascade high side.
• Stand-alone units at 150 from 2025; remote condensing units at 1,400 from 27 July 2026.
• An older permit can move a date; rebuilding from used parts can count as installation.

Servicing is not banned, but recovered gas is not free to move

The installation limits are not a servicing ban, and that distinction decides how a store runs an ageing rack: existing plant can still be serviced, while §84.104 constrains what happens to the gas that comes out. No person may sell, distribute or transfer recovered refrigerant to a new owner unless it has been reclaimed by a reclaimer certified under 40 CFR 82.164 and reprocessed to the specifications in appendix A to Part 82, Subpart F, verified by that appendix's analytical method — or unless it moves solely for reclamation or destruction. Labelling runs alongside: §84.58 requires a permanent label on any system installed after the applicable date, naming the refrigerant and the full date, or at least the four-digit year, of manufacture, which for a field-charged system is the date of first charge.

• High-GWP plant may still be serviced; it may not go into a new system after the date.
• Recovered refrigerant may transfer to a new owner only if reclaimed to appendix A, or moved solely for reclamation or destruction.
• §84.58 labelling attaches at first charge for a field-assembled system.

Four clocks, one of them commercial

A food retailer is running at least four clocks designed separately. The leak clock runs from the addition that revealed an exceedance. The retrofit clock runs from the election or the failed repair. The installation clock runs to 1 January 2027 for supermarket systems, with 1 January 2027 also the outside date for adding automatic leak detection to appliances installed between 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2026. The fourth is the supply contract, which is commercial, negotiable, and priced on a usage and peak assumption that a refrigeration change invalidates. A rack replacement that lands mid-term leaves a contract priced on a load profile the site no longer has — a commercial conversation best had before the equipment order. EIA's 2018 survey puts food sales buildings at 53.3 kilowatt-hours per square foot against 12.6 across commercial buildings, so the equipment decision is also the largest input to what the site buys.

• Leak clock from the addition; plan clock from the election; install clock from the subsector date.
• Automatic leak detection due 1 January 2027 for appliances installed 2017-2025.
• A mid-term rack change invalidates the usage and peak assumption behind a supply price.
• Food sales buildings: 53.3 kWh per square foot against 12.6 across commercial buildings.

What to hold before either decision is priced

The file that satisfies an inspection and the file that prices a contract are close to the same list, which is the practical reason to assemble it once. Refrigerant side: an inventory of every appliance with location, refrigerant type and full charge; the leak-rate calculation and method for each exceedance; every service record with the date and quantity added; both verification tests; inspection records with the method and components covered; any retrofit-or-retire plan and its implementation records; and automatic detection installation and alarm records. §84.106(l) keeps these for at least three years, and the full charge of every appliance of 15 pounds or more had to be determined by 1 January 2026 or at installation. Energy side: twelve months of interval data per site, the meter and delivery utility, the rate class and its demand basis, and every contract end date with its notice period. Whether a site can buy competitive supply depends on the service address, the meter and the utility territory — municipal utilities, cooperatives and some jurisdictions offer no choice — so that answer is confirmed per site, not assumed from the rest of the estate.

• Appliance inventory with full charge, refrigerant type and location.
• Leak-rate calculations, service records and both verification tests.
• Retrofit plans and detection records; three-year retention.
• Per-site interval data, rate class and contract notice dates.
• Choice eligibility belongs to the address, meter and territory.

Where the refrigerant file and the energy file meet

HighGround Exchange works the energy side of this: the supply contract, the delivery tariff, the renewal date and the portfolio. The refrigerant file is what makes that work accurate, because a capital decision about a rack changes the load the contract is priced against, and a leak history is the strongest evidence a site has an equipment problem rather than a procurement problem. An inquiry places no order and switches no supplier. HighGround may receive compensation from providers on completed purchases, disclosed here rather than at signature. The regulatory statements above are read from the Code of Federal Regulations as published on 27 October 2026 and are not legal advice; where a state or local air programme adds requirements, the stricter rule governs the site.

• An inquiry places no order and switches no supplier.
• HighGround may receive compensation from providers on completed purchases.
• Rule text as published 27 October 2026; state and local programmes may add requirements.

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