Applying for an F-gas certificate: how it works

Anyone working on refrigeration, air conditioning or heat pump installations containing F-gases needs a certificate. The thing is: there are two of them, and they are constantly mixed up. In this article we set the personal certificate and the company certificate side by side — what they are, who needs which, how you apply for them and what they cost.

Two certificates, not one

These are two separate documents, each with its own purpose:

• The [F-gas personal certificate](/kennisbank/begrippen#f-gassen-persoonscertificaat) — in the Netherlands arranged through BRL 200 — is tied to the individual technician. It demonstrates that *that* person is professionally competent to work on F-gas installations.
• The [F-gas company certificate](/kennisbank/begrippen#f-gassen-bedrijfscertificaat) is tied to the business. It is legally required for companies that install, maintain, repair or decommission F-gas installations.

The two are connected: a company only gets the company certificate if it has enough certified technicians on the payroll. In practice you therefore apply for the personal certificates first, and after that — or in parallel — the company certificate.

Applying for the personal certificate (BRL 200)

For the technician it runs via an exam at a recognised exam institute: a combination of theory and a hands-on practical assessment with leak detection, pressure measurements and recovery. In outline:

• Choose the right category. Since 29 March 2026, BRL 200 has the categories A1, A2, B, C, D and E — tied to the refrigerant type and the charge, replacing the old I/II/III/IV based on installation size alone. Which one you need depends on the type of work — the details are in our BRL 200 article.
• Sit the exam at a recognised institute.
• The certificate is issued by a recognised certification body. Until 2026 it was valid indefinitely; the EU revision replaces that with a period of validity of 7 years with mandatory recertification, phased in between 2026 and 2029.

Tip: schedule a re-assessment at least three months before the expiry date. Anyone who waits until the final week runs the risk that the assessment dates are fully booked.

Applying for the company certificate

For the business the process is more extensive. Broadly:

• Meet the conditions. You have the required certified technicians on the payroll, calibrated tools (leak detector, manometer set, vacuum pump, recovery equipment) and refrigerant records that add up.
• Choose a certification body. For the F-gas company certificate (BRL 100) those are the six bodies authorised for it — Bureau Veritas, CIBV, DEKRA Certification, ECH-groep, Kiwa NV and SGS INTRON Certificatie — see what is BRL 100?.
• Initial certification audit. The body checks your procedures, your tools *and* your records — at the office and often also at a project in progress.
• Award and registration. If everything is in order, you are entered in the register and may work under the certificate.
• Periodic surveillance audits keep the certificate valid after that.

In the Netherlands the company certificate is in practice interwoven with the STEK quality mark; many refrigeration companies hold both. STEK has, for example, an external audit roughly every 2 years and a maximum leakage rate of 1%. The legal basis lies in the European F-gas Regulation.

What does an F-gas certificate cost?

Naming a hard figure would be dishonest: the costs differ per exam institute, per certification body and per company (number of technicians, categories, and how your administration stands). What you can do is list the cost items:

• Personal certificate: exam and assessment costs per technician, plus the re-assessment at recertification (7 years under the revised scheme).
• Company certificate: the initial certification audit, plus the periodic surveillance audits.
• Indirect costs: the time to get your administration and procedures audit-ready — often the largest item, and the easiest to underestimate.

That last item is exactly where it goes wrong: an audit you have to redo because your refrigerant balance doesn't add up costs more than the audit itself. How you work that kind of cost back for software is covered in what does work order software cost?.

Keeping it valid — and what happens when it expires

Under the revised scheme the personal certificate is valid for 7 years and then requires a re-assessment. The company certificate remains valid as long as you pass the periodic surveillance audits — see the BRL 100 annual check.

Working with an expired certificate is not a detail. A technician without a valid personal certificate may not sign off an F-gas work order; that work order is then invalid and will be rejected at audit. A company without a valid company certificate may not legally carry out the work — the Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (ILT) can impose fines on both the technician and the business.

How Koldwerk monitors your certificates

Koldwerk takes the monitoring off your hands. Per technician you record the certificate number, the category, the issuer and the validity date in technicians / certificates. The work order sign-off blocks automatically when a technician does not hold a valid certificate at the moment of signing off — so an invalid work order never goes out the door by accident. Reminders are sent automatically at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days before expiry.

For the company certificate the refrigerant module keeps your balance adding up and the reports module generates the annual overview the audit expects.

Further reading

• BRL 200: the personal certificate in detail
• STEK quality mark: the company certificate in practice
• European F-gas Regulation 2024/573
• What does work order software cost?
• Not sure whether an installation is subject to the logbook obligation? Take the logbook-obligation check.

Disclaimer: this article is an explanation in plain language. The exact requirements, categories and costs can change and differ per body — consult Kiwa (opent in nieuw tabblad), Normec (opent in nieuw tabblad) or STEK (opent in nieuw tabblad) for the requirements currently in force.