F-gas register check: how to confirm your air conditioning installer is certified

Quick answer: An air conditioning installer needs two F-gas credentials: a personal qualification for each engineer, and company certification from REFCOM, Quidos or Bureau Veritas. Search the REFCOM or Quidos register by company name. If nothing comes up, ask for the certificate, because listing is optional.

Last checked 10 October 2026. On that date we ran a test search on the REFCOM register, including its "View details" page, and opened the Quidos public directory. We did not search every register for every company, and register contents change.

What the law says

gov.uk is clear that refrigerant work is not open to anyone with a toolbox. Air conditioning and heat pumps use F gases (the "F" is for fluorinated), and two separate rules apply.

A company that only services its own equipment does not need a company certificate, but every individual still needs a personal qualification. For a homeowner hiring an installer, that exception does not apply: you are not their equipment.

The personal qualification comes in categories. Category 1 covers all activities. Category 2 covers install, maintenance, service and recovery on systems with under 3 kg of F gas (6 kg if hermetically sealed), which includes typical home splits. Category 4 covers leak checks that do not open the refrigerant circuit. So a fitter with only a category 4 certificate should not be opening the refrigerant circuit on your install.

Who issues the certificates

gov.uk lists these bodies. This is the current list as we read it on 10 October 2026.

A few names turn up on installers' vans and websites that are not F-gas company certificates, so treat them as extras rather than proof:

• REFCOM Elite and FGAS Premium are voluntary schemes run by REFCOM and Quidos for firms that want to show higher standards. A firm can be certified without them.
• BESCA is the BESA competent person scheme. BESA describes it as authorised to let firms self-certify that work complies with building regulations in England and Wales. It is not an F-gas certification body.
• SKILLcard is, in BESA's words, a card issuing and personnel registration scheme. gov.uk's F-gas qualifications page does not name it, so ask to see the F-gas certificate itself as well.
• Gas Safe is for gas appliances and does not appear on gov.uk's list of F-gas qualification bodies.

You only need one company certification scheme. REFCOM's FAQ says dual registration is not required by law and gives no extra legal benefit.

One caution on currency. gov.uk's company certification page carries an August 2019 update date, while the qualifications page was updated on 3 March 2026. Both list the three bodies above, but we could not confirm whether Bureau Veritas is taking on new customers. If an installer says Bureau Veritas, ask for the certificate and the certificate number.

How to search each register

REFCOM

1. Go to the REFCOM register.
2. Search by company name, or by postcode with a distance in miles.
3. The results list company name, postcode, town, and columns showing whether the company holds F-gas certification, REFCOM Elite, or both.
4. Open "View details" for the address, telephone and email, and compare them with your quote.

REFCOM's site says it searches the members of both of its schemes by postcode or company name.

Quidos (the F-Gas Register)

1. Open the F-Gas Register company directory, which embeds the Quidos public directory.
2. Search by company name, city or website.
3. Entries show the company name, address and phone number. Compare the address with your quote.

Bureau Veritas

We found no public search for Bureau Veritas-certified companies in the pages we read. gov.uk lists its contact details under company certification. Ask the installer for their certificate, then contact Bureau Veritas to confirm it.

Individual engineers

We did not find a public national register of individual F-gas holders for air conditioning. Ask to see the engineer's certificate and photograph it: the awarding body (City and Guilds, BESA or LCL Awards), the category, and the certificate number. A company certificate does not tell you the person on your roof is qualified, so check the person who will do the work.

Cross-check with Companies House

Search the legal name on Companies House. A trading name such as "Cool Breeze Air" may be registered as a different legal name, and registers list the legal entity. Companies House lists registered companies, so a sole trader, who is not a registered company, will not appear there. For a sole trader, check the personal name and address instead.

What "not found" really means

Do not read "not on the register" as "not certified". Cooling Post reports that when REFCOM added an online check, it asked suppliers who found a problem to contact its helpdesk to establish whether the company had chosen not to be publicly listed or whether the certificate was invalid. We could not establish the article's date from the copy we read, so we treat it as a statement of how the register has worked, not a current guarantee. We found no equivalent wording for Quidos or Bureau Veritas, so treat all three the same way.

There are other ordinary reasons for a miss:

• the legal name on the certificate differs from the trading name on the van
• the company is certified with a different body from the one you searched
• the certificate has just been issued, renewed or lapsed
• a spelling difference or a change of registered address

The reliable test is the certificate itself, with the number, the body and the dates, checked with the body if in doubt.

What to ask before you book

1. "What is your company's F-gas certificate number, and which body issued it?"
2. "Can I see the certificate, and is it in date?" It must be renewed every three years.
3. "Will the engineer doing my job hold a personal F-gas certificate, and in which category?"
4. "Which refrigerant does the system use, and how many kilograms does it hold?" You will need that figure for any later leak checks. See our servicing guide.
5. "What records will I receive?" gov.uk says anyone who operates or services equipment holding 5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent or more must keep records for 5 years, including gas quantity at installation and leak check results. If you are the user, you should keep the names and certificate numbers of the companies you used.
6. "What manufacturer approval or partner tier do you hold, and where can I check it?" This is separate from F-gas and is covered in our best air conditioning for home guide.

Put the certificate number in your written quote or order confirmation. If you later need to report a problem, that number is what the certification body or the Environment Agency will ask for.

Red flags

None of these proves wrongdoing. Each is a reason to pause and ask a follow-up question.

• No certificate number offered, or a vague answer such as "we're all qualified"
• A certificate in a different company's name, or an expired one
• Offering a gas safety registration or an electrician's card as the answer to an F-gas question
• A quote that does not name the refrigerant or its quantity
• Reluctance to name the engineer who will fit the unit
• A claim of "REFCOM approved" or "F-gas registered" that you cannot match to a register entry or a certificate
• Advice that you can buy refrigerant or top up the system yourself
• Pressure to pay in cash or to skip paperwork

If you see someone working with F gas without the right credentials, gov.uk asks you to report it to the Environment Agency at f-gassupport@environment-agency.gov.uk. A civil penalty can follow.

How Air Con Guide labels F-gas status

Each installer in our directory carries one of these states. We use the same wording across the site.

Two rules sit behind the labels. We never present "not found" as "not certified", because companies can opt out of public listing and the registers differ. And we show Verified only when we found the entry ourselves, with a check date, so you can repeat the search. Where we could not verify a company, the listing carries this warning: "We could not verify this installer's F-gas certification. Ask to see their certificate before you book."

Every installer page shows what we found on the register. Start with our Brighton and Hove installer directory.