The 15-pound refrigerant rule, explained

What changed, and for whom

Until this year the federal leak repair requirement lived in 40 CFR part 82 and applied to appliances holding 50 pounds or more of an ozone-depleting refrigerant. The AIM Act gave the EPA authority over hydrofluorocarbons, and the Emissions Reduction and Reclamation rule used it: the leak repair section, 40 CFR 84.106, applies as of 1 January 2026 to any refrigerant-containing appliance with a full charge of 15 pounds or more where the refrigerant is an HFC or a substitute with a global warming potential above 53 (84.106(a)).

Fifteen pounds is a walk-in cooler, a rack of display cases on one condensing unit, a packaged rooftop unit, a small chiller. The rule names two exclusions: appliances running solely on an ozone-depleting substance, which stay under part 82, and the residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pump subsector (84.106(a)(3)). Everything else at 15 pounds or more is in. The applicability checker runs the four criteria on your numbers.

Every addition gets a calculation

The owner or operator must calculate the leak rate every time refrigerant is added to a covered appliance, unless the addition follows a retrofit or a new installation or qualifies as a seasonal variance (84.106(b)). The person who adds the refrigerant must hand over documentation of the service. Two methods are allowed, the annualizing method and the rolling average, and a facility uses one method for all its appliances; the leak rate guide works both with the same numbers.

Three limits

The applicable leak rate is 20 percent for commercial refrigeration, 30 percent for industrial process refrigeration, and 10 percent for comfort cooling, refrigerated transport and anything else covered (84.106(c)(2)). Commercial refrigeration means the appliances in retail food and cold storage, and the definition names restaurants and other food service establishments; comfort cooling names chillers, split systems and packaged rooftop units (84.102). The limit is a rate over a year, so a top-up that looks small in pounds can be large in percent when the previous one was recent.

Over the limit: thirty days, two tests

Leaks must be identified and repaired within 30 days of the addition that exceeded the rate, or 120 days where an industrial process shutdown is required, by a certified technician (84.106(c)(1), (d)). The repair is proven twice: an initial verification test after the repair and before refrigerant goes back in, and a follow-up test within 10 days of a successful initial test, at normal operating conditions (84.106(e)). An owner who would rather retire or retrofit the appliance has 30 days to write that plan and a year to finish it (84.106(h)).

The report, and the records

An appliance that leaks 125 percent or more of its full charge in a calendar year is reported to the EPA by 1 March of the following year (84.106(j)). Everything else is recordkeeping: the full charge of every covered appliance and how it was determined, a record of every installation, service, repair or disposal with the refrigerant added and the leak rate and method, the verification tests, the inspections, all kept for at least three years (84.106(l)). The records guide lists them one by one.

Where a state adds its own programme

The federal rule is the floor. California, Washington and New York run refrigerant management programmes of their own that reach lower charges and run shorter clocks; each has an overlay page beside this guide: California, Washington and New York, each line read from the state's own text with its section.

What this page is not

A statement about your appliances, or advice on what to do about them. It states what the sections say and links each one so you can read it yourself. The ledger this site sells records and computes; it certifies nothing.

Common questions

Is the 15-pound rule a new law?

It is a regulation under the AIM Act of 2020: the leak repair provisions of the EPA's Emissions Reduction and Reclamation rule, codified at 40 CFR 84.106, which apply as of January 1, 2026. The older leak repair rule for ozone-depleting refrigerants in 40 CFR part 82 still applies to those refrigerants, at 50 pounds.

Does it apply to a home air conditioner?

No. Appliances in the residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pump subsector are excluded (84.106(a)(3)(ii)), and most home systems hold less than 15 pounds in any case.

What is the penalty?

This page does not say, because the rule text this page rests on does not set one; enforcement and penalties are the EPA's under the Clean Air Act framework the AIM Act borrows. The obligations are what the sections state: calculate, repair, verify, report, keep records.