How much does the air conditioning gas charge costair

Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish

As it is already known, one of the most common failures in our air conditioning is gas leaks, either due to problems derived from a bad installation or because with the passage of time some gas leakage is generated which causes the air conditioning gas to be lost and therefore stops working correctly, both in cold mode and in heat pump mode.

This gas, as already mentioned in our article on the F-Gas tax, has increased its price exponentially in recent years and therefore also the price of charging for gas, because if in the past it was the technician’s labour and travel that most influenced the price of charging for an air conditioner, today it is by far the price of gas and above all its tax that determines to a large extent the total price of a gas charge.

What determines the price of the air conditioning gas charge

To make an estimate of how much it can cost to charge for gas in an air conditioner we have to take into account these variables that will affect the final price.

1. Manpower and displacement: The price that the technician will charge to come to our house and do the gas recharge, normally with one hour of work and the displacement will be enough as long as he only does the work of loading the gas. The price of this displacement and hand we will fix it in approximately 15€ for the displacement and 25€ for one hour of work, although this can be variable depending on the technician, place to go, etc.
2. Refrigerant gas price:  The price of the refrigerant gas used by our air conditioning will have a different price depending on the type of gas used.The most used ones like R410A, R407C, R134a or R404A have a base price that is around 10€/kg and the substitutes of the R22 like R424A or R417A will be for 15€/kg. To this must be added the technician’s margin which can easily double this price.
3. Amount of gas: Not all air conditioners need the same amount of gas, 1×1 domestic split units that can be used in a standard dining room or bedroom usually carry 1 kg of gas. By contrast, a centralized duct unit for the entire house can easily carry 5 kg of gas.
4. F-Gas Tax: As already mentioned, the tax on each fluorinated gas is determined by its global warming potential or GWP and each type of gas has a different GWP and therefore the amount of the tax will also be different. For example the R410A with a GWP of 1,975 will have by 2016 a direct tax per kilogram of 39.50€.

Table of F-Gas taxes for the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and beyond:

Air conditioning gas load price

Knowing the approximate base prices, we are going to show you a table where you can see the total price of a gas refill in different scenarios.

Conclusions

As can be seen from the 5 kg gas loads, by 2016 the F-Gas tax will be the most important factor influencing the total price of the refill. According to these calculations, 58% of the total price of a R410A gas charge will be taxed, 54% for R407C gas and 55% for the case of R424A which replaces R-22, all in the absence of 21% VAT.

This graph shows the evolution of expenditure in the total invoice of the F-Gas tax for these three gases, taking as a reference a gas load of 5 kg for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016*.