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Refrigeration and cooling
Refrigeration engineers need professional indemnity insurance if they design, specify or advise: cooling loads, plant selection, refrigerant choice, cold store layouts and control strategies. When a design is wrong, the loss usually arrives as spoiled stock, a store that cannot hold temperature or plant that has to be rebuilt, and public liability is not designed to pay for that. Contractors who only service and repair existing systems carry less professional risk, but they give clients advice more often than they think.
Part of: Engineers’ professional indemnity insurance
In short
A refrigeration design error rarely causes an accident. It causes a store that drifts above temperature, compressors that short-cycle, running costs far above the estimate, or a plant built around a refrigerant the client can no longer service economically. Those allegations of negligent design or advice belong with professional indemnity insurance, not public liability. In Great Britain, F gas rules ban higher-GWP refrigerants in many new systems and restrict top-ups of the highest-GWP gases, and larger vapour compression systems fall under the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000. No law requires refrigeration engineers to hold PI, but clients and main contractors usually ask for it.
Last reviewed 5 October 2026 by the Apex professional indemnity team.
Public liability insurance responds to accidental injury and accidental damage: a brazing torch that scorches a client’s ceiling, or a compressor dropped onto a finished floor. Refrigeration disputes are more often about performance. The plant was installed as designed and runs without incident, but the design underestimated the load, so the store cannot pull product down fast enough or hold it at the temperature the client needs.
The losses that follow are financial and can be large. A food distributor writes off stock that went out of temperature. A pharmaceutical client loses a batch it can no longer release. A retailer pays for extra condensers because the first set cannot cope on hot days. Each claim says your design, calculation or advice was negligent, which is the ground professional indemnity (PI) insurance usually covers.
Spoiled stock is physical damage, so it is tempting to assume public liability will respond. Public liability wordings, though, often exclude loss arising from design or professional advice, and many exclude equipment that simply fails to perform. If you design systems, arrange PI so that the two policies fit together rather than leaving a gap between them.
The scenarios below are illustrative. They show the type of allegation refrigeration engineers face, not real claims or outcomes.
None of these involve an accident in the public liability sense. Each is an allegation that you fell below the standard of a competent refrigeration designer.
Refrigeration design in Great Britain is shaped by F gas law, pressure systems law and the cold chain duties of your clients. The table summarises the points that most often come up in a dispute.
| Rule or standard | What it says | Why it matters for your PI |
|---|---|---|
| GB F gas bans on new equipment | Banned now: hermetically sealed commercial refrigerators and freezers using HFCs with a GWP above 150; multipack centralised commercial systems of 40 kW or more with a GWP above 150, except primary circuits of cascade systems using F gas with a GWP below 1,500; and stationary refrigeration equipment with a GWP above 2,500, except systems designed to cool products below minus 50°C. | Specifying a refrigerant the rules do not allow is a design error with an expensive fix. |
| GB F gas servicing ban | Equipment with a charge of 40 tonnes CO2 equivalent or more cannot be refilled with F gas with a GWP above 2,500, unless it is reclaimed or recycled, and that allowance ends in 2030. Military equipment and systems cooling products below minus 50°C are exempt. | Advice on keeping existing plant running has to account for it. |
| GB leak checking | Equipment holding 5 to 50 tonnes CO2 equivalent must be leak checked at least every 12 months, 50 to 500 tonnes every 6 months, and 500 tonnes or more every 3 months. Automatic leak detection is required from 500 tonnes and doubles the interval where fitted. | Charge size is a design decision with compliance costs attached for the life of the plant. |
| F gas qualifications and company certification | Engineers working on equipment containing F gas need qualifications, and companies need certification. Northern Ireland follows the EU F gas system rather than GB rules. | Underwriters ask for your certification, and cross-border work needs the right rulebook. |
| Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 | Vapour compression refrigeration systems with total installed compressor motor power not exceeding 25 kW are excepted. Larger systems fall within the Regulations, which require a written scheme of examination by a competent person. | Pressure system design and documentation become part of what your work is judged on. |
| BS EN 378 | The standard for safety and environmental requirements for refrigerating systems and heat pumps; Part 1 covers basic requirements, definitions, classification and selection criteria. | The usual benchmark for a refrigeration design’s safety features. |
| Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, Schedule 4 | Food likely to support the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms or toxins must not be kept above 8°C, subject to limited exceptions. | A chiller that cannot hold temperature puts your client in breach, and its losses follow. |
| Usually covered by PI | Often excluded or limited | Needs a different policy |
|---|---|---|
| Negligent load calculations, plant selection and system design | Temperatures, pull-down times or energy savings guaranteed as a warranty | Accidental damage while installing or servicing (public liability) |
| Wrong advice on refrigerant choice and F gas compliance | Regulatory fines and penalties | Injury to your own engineers, including refrigerant exposure (employers’ liability) |
| Errors in control, defrost and alarm strategies you design | The cost of correcting your own faulty installation work | Plant damaged on site before handover (contract works) |
| Commissioning and handover advice | Pollution, including refrigerant releases, unless written back | Stock spoiled at premises you own or run (deterioration of stock cover) |
| Defence costs, including expert analysis of design and temperature records | Circumstances you knew about before the policy began | Vans, tools and recovery equipment (motor and property policies) |
Cover depends on the insurer’s acceptance and the policy wording. If your policy describes you as a refrigeration installer or service company and you also design plant, ask for the description to be widened so that design and advice are clearly included.
The refrigerant you specify fixes a plant’s compliance path, servicing costs, safety measures and design pressures for the whole of its working life. In Great Britain many higher-GWP refrigerants are already banned in new systems, and the largest systems running on the highest-GWP gases can only be topped up with reclaimed or recycled refrigerant until 2030. Advice given today will be judged against rules your client has to live with for years.
Moving to lower-GWP options shifts the risk rather than removing it. Ammonia is toxic, carbon dioxide systems run at high pressures, and hydrocarbons and many newer synthetic refrigerants are flammable. Each choice changes machinery room design, detection, ventilation, relief and maintenance, and each brings its own route to a claim.
To make that advice defensible:
In refrigeration, the value at risk is often the stock, not the plant. A distribution centre, a pharmaceutical store or a supermarket cold chain can hold goods worth many times the value of your contract. When temperature control fails, the owner’s property insurer may pay for the spoiled stock and then pursue whoever it believes caused the loss, which can mean a claim against your design years after the event.
That has three practical consequences:
Your limit is usually set by contract. Food retailers, logistics operators, developers and main contractors put a PI requirement into appointments and subcontracts, often with a higher figure where you design as well as install. Check whether they want cover for each and every claim or in the aggregate, because the two are not interchangeable.
PI is claims-made, so it answers claims first made while the policy is live. A cold store you design this year could produce a claim long after handover, and the policy in force then is the one that responds. Keep cover continuous, watch for contracts requiring cover for six or twelve years after completion, and arrange run-off if you retire or close the business. If a contract asks for more than you hold, see what to do when a contract requires a higher PI limit.
A complete proposal gets better terms than a bare one, and a broker can only present what you tell us. Have these ready:
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Start the online proposal and save it as you go, or leave your number and a named broker will call you back, usually the same working day.
Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker based in Bristol, established in 2009 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are not tied to one insurer: we work with over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates through wholesale brokers, and every client has a named broker who handles the placement, mid-term changes, certificates for clients and the renewal.
Yes, if you design, specify or advise on refrigeration systems. Load calculations, plant selection, refrigerant choice and control strategies can all cause financial loss, such as spoiled stock or plant that has to be replaced, without any accident. Public liability is not designed to cover that. Engineers who only service existing systems have less exposure, but rarely none.
No. F gas rules require engineers to hold qualifications and companies to hold certification to work on equipment containing F gas, but no law requires PI insurance. In practice clients, developers and main contractors usually make PI a condition of appointment, especially where you design the system.
It can, where the failure results from negligent design or advice, subject to the policy terms. If the failure came from an installation accident, public liability is more likely to respond, and a breakdown with no fault on your part may fall to the owner’s own insurance. Check how your PI treats property damage arising from your design.
In Great Britain, equipment with a charge of 40 tonnes CO2 equivalent or more cannot be refilled with F gas with a GWP above 2,500 unless the gas is reclaimed or recycled, and that allowance ends in 2030. Advice to keep such a system running should explain this and be recorded in writing.
Usually only where the shortfall results from negligence and you did not guarantee the outcome. A promise of a fixed saving or efficiency figure can become a warranty, which PI policies commonly exclude. Present savings as estimates based on stated assumptions about load and operating hours.
PI is claims-made, so it responds to claims made while the policy is in force, whenever the work was done. Keep cover continuous for as long as a claim could arise, which contracts often set at six or twelve years after completion, and arrange run-off cover if you retire, sell or close the business.
Apex arranges professional indemnity insurance for refrigeration engineers across the UK. Tell us about your work and we’ll find cover that fits. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start your PI proposal Call 0117 325 0027Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information, not advice on your individual circumstances. Cover is always subject to the insurer’s acceptance and the policy terms, and this page does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
