What refrigerant charge and equipment lifetime do the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines assume for each type of cooling equipment?

Charge runs from 0.05 to 0.5 kilograms for a domestic refrigerator up to 10 to 10,000 kilograms for industrial refrigeration. Lifetimes run from 6 to 9 years for transport refrigeration up to 15 to 30 years for chillers and industrial plant. Table 7.9 of the Guidelines gives the full list.

Table 7.9: charge and lifetime

The Guidelines say the lower end of the lifetime range is for developed countries and the upper end for developing countries, and that compilers should choose within the range for their conditions and document why.

• Domestic refrigeration: 0.05 to 0.5 kilograms, 12 to 20 years.
• Stand-alone commercial applications: 0.2 to 6 kilograms, 10 to 15 years.
• Medium and large commercial refrigeration: 50 to 2,000 kilograms, 7 to 15 years.
• Transport refrigeration: 3 to 8 kilograms, 6 to 9 years.
• Industrial refrigeration including food processing and cold storage: 10 to 10,000 kilograms, 15 to 30 years.
• Chillers: 10 to 2,000 kilograms, 15 to 30 years.
• Residential and commercial air conditioning including heat pumps: 0.5 to 100 kilograms, 10 to 20 years.
• Mobile air conditioning: 0.5 to 1.5 kilograms, 9 to 16 years.

Three uses

1. Spot a wrong reading: a split air conditioner showing 1,500 on the plate is probably grams, not kilograms. That check is our reading.
2. Build the bank: the Guidelines' mobile air conditioning example adds the charges installed over the lifetime years to get the gas in use.
3. Flag old units: equipment past the lifetime range is probably retired or close to it. That is our reading, and it affects end-of-life gas.

Split air conditioner lifetime of 10 to 20 years, checked in 2026

• Installed 2008: 2026 minus 2008 = 18 years old, past the 10-year lower end and 2 years short of the 20-year upper end
• Installed 2014: 12 years old, past the lower end and 8 years short of the upper end
• Installed 2018: 8 years old, younger than both ends

Install years are examples. Choose the point in the range from your own conditions and write down why.

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.

• Gas left in scrapped cooling equipment
• Leakage without top-up records
• Refrigerant installed by new AC units

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

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Table 7.9 dates from 2006 and cites reports from 1999 and 2003. Prefer the maker's data for your model.