How do I check the refrigerant I bought this year against what my equipment should need?

Add what your equipment should have needed: the first charge of new units, plus each unit's charge times an annual leak rate, plus container losses. Compare that with the kilograms you bought. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) runs this supply and demand check at national level.

The IPCC check

Equation 7.15 of the Guidelines adds four terms: the gas charged into new equipment, the gas lost while charging it, the gas banked in existing systems times their annual emission rate, and container losses. Equation 7.16 gives the market side: production, minus exports, plus imports, plus reclaimed gas, minus gas destroyed. The Guidelines say comparing the two "gives a clear quality control" and call the check possible but not necessary for good practice. It is a national tool; the version below is our adaptation.

Your version, gas by gas

1. Add up the kilograms of one gas bought in the year from invoices. Do one gas at a time.
2. Work out the expected need, following Equation 7.15. Add the first charge of any brand new units, the loss while charging them (Table 7.9 gives 0.5% to 3% of that first charge for industrial refrigeration including cold storage), and the existing nameplate charge times the low and the high annual leak rate for the equipment type in Table 7.9.
3. Add a container loss. The Guidelines put container management losses at 2% to 10% of the refrigerant market; applying that share to the gas you bought is our reading for a single site (see the container page linked below).
4. Compare the total bought with the low-to-high range of expected need. Bought gas inside the range is plausible. Above it, look for stock left unused, a unit with a known leak, or container heels. Below it, look for missing invoices or units leaking less than the default.

One thing the Guidelines leave out of "need"

Refrigerant "recovered and recharged directly to the same owner's equipment" is not counted as a need. If your technician moves recovered gas between your units, it will not show on purchase invoices.

Four R-404A cold rooms of 25 kilograms and a new one of 15 kilograms

• Gas bought in the year: 41 kilograms
• First charge of the new room: 15 kilograms
• Existing bank: 4 x 25 = 100 kilograms. Industrial refrigeration including cold storage leaks 7% to 25% a year: 7 to 25 kilograms
• Loss while charging the new room at 0.5% to 3% of 15 kilograms: 0.075 to 0.45 kilograms
• Container loss at 2% to 10% of the 41 kilograms bought: 0.82 to 4.1 kilograms
• Expected need: 15 + 0.075 + 7 + 0.82 = 22.895 kilograms up to 15 + 0.45 + 25 + 4.1 = 44.55 kilograms
• Bought 41 kilograms: inside the range, so plausible. Without the container term the top of the range is 40.45, and 41 would sit 0.55 kilograms above it, which is where cylinder heels would be the first thing to check

Room sizes and purchases are examples. The 7% to 25% and 0.5% to 3% are Table 7.9 ranges; the 2% to 10% container range is a market-wide figure applied here as our screening reading.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into dated records. It does not read recovery notes, service tickets or equipment nameplates, so keep those papers yourself and add the kilograms to your Scope 1 figure.

• Turn a top-up invoice into CO2e
• Leakage without top-up records
• Leak rate in food processing refrigeration
• Container handling losses

Sources: IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 3, Chapter 7: Emissions of Fluorinated Substitutes for Ozone Depleting Substances

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Applying the national supply and demand check to one site is our adaptation. Table 7.9 ranges are 2006 defaults.