When does the F-gas ban on single split air conditioning take effect?

For a household, the practical effect is on what can be newly placed on the market and on which refrigerants can be supplied, not on a unit already on the wall. A single split-system air conditioner requires an indoor unit and an outdoor unit, connected via wiring and piping, with no ductwork needed and professional installation required². That refrigerant circuit is what the regulation governs.

The dates above come from the revised European regulation. Great Britain has been consulting on its own reform of the HFC phasedown, and that consultation closed on 17 December 2025³. Until the GB reform is settled, the confirmed dates a household can point to are the European ones, and the direction of travel in both is the same: lower global warming potential refrigerants, and fewer high-GWP units placed on the market.

What the F-gas rules mean for single split air conditioning

The regulation works on the refrigerant, not on the comfort it delivers. A single split system is defined by its two parts and the pipework between them, and the F-gas rules bite on the gas inside that circuit. The F-Gas Regulation states that annual leak tests for heat pumps are only legally required for systems containing more than 5 tonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases as refrigerants⁵. Most domestic single split units sit well below that threshold, so the routine leak-testing duty that applies to large commercial plant does not fall on a typical household unit.

What does apply is who may touch the circuit. It is against the law to work with equipment containing F-gases if you do not have the correct qualifications⁶. Regulation 2015/2067, as retained in UK law, establishes the minimum requirements for the training and certification of the people who do that work, and the reserved activities include decommissioning and disposing of old systems⁶. The UK recognises equivalent qualifications issued by an EU Member State⁶.

The wider policy context matters here. Heat pumps will be the main source of F gas emissions due to the planned national rollout of heat pumps as a replacement to gas boilers⁷. That is why the rules tighten on split equipment specifically: it is the category expected to grow fastest as homes move off gas. For a household, the F-gas rules do not restrict the use of an installed air conditioner. They restrict the supply of high-GWP refrigerant and the market for new equipment containing it, and they require certified hands for any work on the circuit.

Which refrigerants are affected and why

The regulation targets HFCs, the hydrofluorocarbons that made up most of the air conditioning refrigerant charge for the past three decades. Only three non-HFCs are widely used as refrigerants⁷, which is why the transition is narrower than it first appears: the industry is not choosing from a long menu, it is moving between a small number of options.

Two exemptions soften the phasedown. Recycled and reprocessed HFC refrigerants are not affected by the new quota because they were already placed on the market⁸, and HFO refrigerants are not affected by the phase down⁸. That matters for servicing: reclaimed gas can keep existing equipment running even as virgin HFC supply is squeezed by quota. The maker guidance also states the underlying principle of the prohibition: prohibition if alternatives with a lower global warming potential could technically be used⁵.

The EU regulation goes further out in time, with an unrestricted ban from 01.01.2050, depending on the result of the review in 2040⁹. That is a long horizon, and it is a maker's summary of the EU position rather than a GB rule, but it shows the direction: the end state is no unrestricted HFC use at all.

For a household, the question that follows is which refrigerant is actually in the unit. That is answered by the rating plate and the manual, not by the age of the installation. A certified handler can read the charge and convert it to CO2-equivalent, which is the figure the leak-test threshold is measured against.

Timelines: what is confirmed and what is not yet dated

The confirmed dates are the European ones. The revised F-gas regulation introduces a full ban on placing products and equipment containing HFCs on the market for several categories, including certain domestic refrigerators, chillers, foams and aerosols¹, alongside the split system dates. The 2035 phase-out for split air conditioning and heat pumps carries earlier deadlines for certain types of split systems with higher global warming potential¹.

What is not yet dated is the GB equivalent. The F gas Regulation in Great Britain consultation on reform of the HFC phasedown closed on 17 December 2025³, and no commencement date for a GB reform appears in the material. The consultation itself is the mechanism by which the GB dates will be set, so a household tracking this should watch for the government response rather than assume the European dates apply verbatim in Great Britain.

There is a separate and unrelated set of building dates that sometimes gets confused with this. Approved Document F, which covers ventilation, was last updated on 7 April 2026¹⁰, and its volume 1 for dwellings takes effect on 4 March 2027¹⁰. The original volume 1 was published in December 2021¹¹. These are ventilation rules, not refrigerant rules, but they bear on air conditioning installations because mechanical extract and air movement in a dwelling are covered there. For solid fuel appliances, the guidance is to avoid installing extract ventilation in the same room¹².

What the ban means for households with existing single split systems

Nothing in the rules makes an installed single split system illegal. The prohibition is on placing products and equipment containing HFCs on the market, which is a supply-side restriction, not a use-side one. A working unit can stay in service, and the servicing regime continues, with reclaimed refrigerant available outside the quota⁸.

The pattern in adjacent home heating policy is instructive, because it shows how governments have handled the same question for boilers. There are no plans yet to ban replacement gas boilers in existing homes¹³, and the gas boiler ban only applies to new-build homes, with no cut-off from gas supply for existing homes¹⁴. The stated approach is to replace equipment with a low carbon alternative when it naturally needs to be¹⁵. Scotland's New Build Heat Standard prohibits mains gas and oil boilers as a main heating system in new buildings while leaving existing homes alone¹⁶.

That is the shape of the F-gas position too: new equipment is regulated, existing equipment is not condemned. The dependence that remains for a household with a single split system is on a certified handler for any work on the circuit, on the refrigerant supply chain as quota tightens, and on the manufacturer for parts and support over the unit's life. None of those is removed by the ban, and none of them is a reason the unit must come out.

Options for replacement and low-GWP alternatives

Where a unit does reach the end of its life, the low-GWP options are already on the UK market. R290, a propane-based refrigerant, has a global warming potential of 3, and it appears in several air-to-water heat pumps sold here.

These are air-to-water heat pumps rather than air-to-air air conditioning, so they serve heating and hot water rather than cooling, but they show the refrigerant direction the market has taken. Monobloc systems of this kind are slightly less efficient than split systems¹⁹, which is the trade-off a household weighs against the refrigerant's far lower global warming potential.

For off-grid homes, the combination of a heat pump with an LPG or oil condensing boiler along with biofuel can significantly reduce carbon emissions²⁰, and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme guidance has been updated on the ability to retain low-carbon heating systems that can operate alongside a BUS heat pump in some cases²¹. There is limited opportunity for such consumers to switch fuel source²², which is why hybrid arrangements feature in the policy discussion.

On the fossil fuel side, the ban on installing oil and LPG boilers for off-grid gas homes has been delayed to 2035²³, and there is currently no ban on installing or replacing an LPG boiler²³. By 2035 no more gas boilers will be sold in the UK²⁴. Those dates sit alongside the F-gas timetable and shape what a household replacing equipment is choosing between.

Where to check official dates and guidance

The authoritative sources for this subject are the regulators and the government consultations, not the marketing pages of equipment makers. Enforcement of the GB F gas Regulation is the responsibility of the Environment Agency in England⁷, with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in Scotland⁶. The UK Emissions Trading Scheme, which sits alongside the F-gas framework in climate policy, is jointly administered by the Scottish Government, UK Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive²⁵, which is why dates and duties can differ between the four nations.

For anyone working on the equipment, the certification route runs through a qualifying body such as City and Guilds⁶, and the reserved activities include decommissioning and disposing of old systems⁶. The professional register entry for the F-gas handler role sets out the legal basis and the recognition of EU qualifications⁶.

The consultation record is where the GB timetable will appear. The F gas Regulation in Great Britain consultation on reform of the HFC phasedown closed on 17 December 2025³. Related consultations show how the wider framework is being revised: the heat networks regulation fair pricing protection guidance closed on 28 October 2025²⁶, and the call for input on exercising consumer choice in the gas disconnections framework was published on 13 January 2025²⁷. For the building side, Approved Document F volume 1 for dwellings was published in December 2021¹¹ and takes effect on 4 March 2027¹⁰.