What is BRL 100, and why does it affect your work order?

BRL 100 is the assessment guideline for installation and maintenance companies that work on heat pumps, refrigeration and air conditioning installations. The certificate is issued by one of six authorised certification bodies — Bureau Veritas, CIBV, DEKRA Certification, ECH-groep, Kiwa NV and SGS INTRON Certificatie, according to the Informatiepunt Leefomgeving (IPLO) (opent in nieuw tabblad); InstallQ is not on that list. Anyone working under the BRL 100 process certificate may deliver under that quality mark — and for more and more clients (municipalities, housing associations, owners' associations) that is a hard requirement. You will also find a short definition in our glossary.

Is BRL 100 mandatory?

This is the most frequently asked question, and the short answer is: it depends on what you do. There is no law that forces every refrigeration company to hold BRL 100. But as soon as you work on F-gas installations for third parties, that changes: the F-gas company certificate is then legally required — and that company certificate is itself the BRL 100 certificate, not a separate certification alongside it (source: Rijksoverheid Ondernemersplein (opent in nieuw tabblad)).

For most refrigeration companies, which after all largely work with F-gases, BRL 100 is therefore not optional in practice. On top of that, more and more clients — municipalities, housing associations, owners' associations and main contractors — also explicitly require the certificate in their tender, quite apart from the legal obligation. Without the quality mark you then miss out, even though technically you are allowed to carry out the work. You can read more about how BRL 100 relates to STEK in STEK vs BRL 100.

What do you need to arrange administratively?

The guideline requires that for every operation carried out you can demonstrate what happened, by whom, and on which installation. In practice that means:

• Per installation a unique record with make, type, serial number, installation date and refrigerant charge.
• Per visit a work order with the date, technician, work carried out, materials used, pressure measurements and any refrigerant change.
• Both signatures — technician and customer — on every work order.
• A record that is retained for 5 years, also after an installation has been removed.

How do you obtain the BRL 100 certificate?

The certificate runs via a Certification Body (CI) — according to the Informatiepunt Leefomgeving (IPLO) (opent in nieuw tabblad) there are six of them: Bureau Veritas, CIBV, DEKRA Certification, ECH-groep, Kiwa NV and SGS INTRON Certificatie. InstallQ is not on that list. In broad terms the route looks like this:

• Application and intake. You register your company and supply your quality system, procedures and personnel details — including your technicians' BRL 200 certificates.
• Initial certification audit. The CI checks your administration at the office and also comes to look at a project in progress to see whether practice matches your records.
• Award. If everything is in order, you are entered in the register and may deliver under the quality mark.
• Periodic check. After that the auditor returns for surveillance audits to check whether you are maintaining the level — which is exactly what the BRL 100 annual check is about.

Lead time and costs differ per CI and per company size. What all CIs have in common: they want to see demonstrable, traceable records. The better your administration is in order, the more smoothly the initial certification audit goes.

The three most common mistakes

1. Work orders without a customer signature. At an audit this always comes to light. Our work order flow blocks AFTEKENING (sign-off) without both signatures.

2. Refrigerant changes not linked to a work order. If you top up 2 kg of R-32, that change has to go to the installation balance, to the cylinder stock and onto the work order. One place, three consequences.

3. No maintenance history at handover. The customer sells the premises and you are asked to hand over the record. Without a digital archive, that is where the hunt through folders begins.

How Koldwerk covers this

The digital work orders module enforces that every work order has an installation, a technician, a customer and two signatures before it can go to AFGETEKEND (signed off). The refrigerant module keeps the balance. Installation management retains the history even after 5 years.

BRL 100 or STEK — what do you need?

These two terms are often confused, but they cover different things:

• BRL 100 is itself the legally required F-gas company certificate for work on F-gas installations, and the quality mark with which you show clients that your work is traceable.
• STEK is a separate, older foundation with its own assessment framework around F-gases and refrigerants. The difference is set out in STEK vs BRL 100.

Many refrigeration companies deal with both. The common denominator is a watertight, digital administration that serves both checks at once.

Please note: "K25000" is sometimes used loosely in the sector for the annual BRL 100 surveillance audit (see the BRL 100 annual check) — but that is incorrect. BRL K25000 is a separate, unrelated Kiwa scheme for CO safety in gas-fired combustion installations under the Gasketelwet.

Further reading

• BRL 100 changes 2026 — what changes in the revised guideline.
• Refrigerant balance: a practical guide — the cornerstone of every audit.
• F-gas logbook: what needs to be in it? — the complete list of fields per installation.
• What does work order software cost? — pricing models and hidden costs set out.
• Not sure whether you are subject to the logbook obligation? Take the logbook-obligation check.

Disclaimer: this article is an explanation in plain language. The official BRL 100 takes precedence — consult Kiwa (opent in nieuw tabblad) or one of the other five authorised certification bodies for the current text.