CARB Reporting
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is charged with protecting the public from the harmful effects of air pollution and developing programs and actions to fight climate change. From requirements for clean cars and fuels to adopting innovative solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, California has pioneered a range of effective approaches that have set the standard for effective air and climate programs for the nation, and the world. Read more about the California Air Resources Board.
ServiceChannel has enhanced Service Automation and Provider Automation to be able to monitor, collect and report on assets that fall under the purview of the California Air Resources Board. These assets include all HVAC and Refrigerated assets that contain more than 50 pounds of ozone depleting gases and are housed and operated in the state of California.
Identifying, Designating and Setting Up Assets for CARB Reporting
All HVAC and Refrigerated assets that fall under the purview of CARB must be reported on annually. Therefore these assets must be identified in Service Automation before the annual CARB report is produced.
All assets that contain 50 lbs/22.6796 kg or more of designated greenhouse gases must be reported on annually. Identifying which assets fall into the aforementioned category is a simple process in Service Automation’s Asset Manager.
Currently, there are 3 ways to designate that an asset should be included in the annual CARB report:
- Upon asset creation;
- Upon editing existing assets, one by one; or
- Via template
The method or methods that you choose should be based on the number of assets that need to be included in the CARB report.
Setting Up Assets for CARB Reporting via Template
You can use the MS Excel template to specify which of your refrigerated or HVAC assets should be tracked by CARB. The template is especially useful when you need to set up multiple assets for the CARB reporting.
- Navigate to the hamburger menu, and select Assets (Equipment) > Manage Assets.
Once you land on the assets list, select the Include Deactivated Assets and Show Only Refrigerant checkboxes in the filters panel, then hit Apply to get the assets matching the filtering criteria.
Including deactivated assets provides you with the ability to select assets that may have been deactivated during the current reporting period, and therefore are required to be included in the annual CARB report.
Click Export # Assets, and select All Attributes. An MS Excel report on refrigerated assets gets downloaded to your device.
Open the downloaded file in your preferred spreadsheet reader.
Review the file to ensure that all of the assets have either Refrigeration or HVAC as the primary trade.
- Find the Is Tracked by CARB column which is the last column of the spreadsheet.
- Enter TRUE under Is Tracked by CARB for each asset that should be included in the CARB report.
- Enter the CARB ID for each asset that is tracked by CARB. The CARB ID is the identification number of the asset in the CARB portal. Your administrator should copy the CARB ID form the CARB portal and paste it into the CARB ID field in Asset Manager.
- Specify the System Location:
- Indoors: if your refrigeration or HVAC unit is installed inside the building, for example, in the restaurant kitchen.
- Outdoors: if your unit is located outside the building, for example, in the back of the store or on the roof.
- Partially Indoors & Outdoors: if you have a split system in which the condenser is located indoors, and the evaporator is located outdoors.
- For assets that are tracked by CARB, make sure you also enter their Manufactured Date.
- When ready, save your file in the XLSX format.
- Navigate to the Imported Assets section.
- Switch to the Upload Assets section, and click the Select .xlsx File (With Custom Attributes) button to upload the file.
- Select the .xlsx file you have just saved. Asset Manager will run the file through a validation process.
If it passes, you will see that the file is Validated under the Current Status field. Click Confirm Import to upload assets.
If some errors are found, your file gets Rejected. Click Download and Fix to correct the errors, and then re-upload the file.
Setting Up Assets for CARB Reporting Upon Creation
As you create an asset that falls under the purview of the CARB, you can let the system know that this asset should be tracked by CARB.
- Navigate to Assets (Equipment) > Manage Assets. The assets list opens.
- Click + Add in the upper-right corner of the page.
- Add the required asset information.
- Select the Is Tracked by CARB checkbox.
- Select the System Location from the drop-down list under Refrigerant Properties:
- Indoors: if your refrigeration or HVAC unit is installed inside the building, for example, in the restaurant kitchen.
- Outdoors: if your unit is located outside the building, for example, in the back of the store or on the roof.
- Partially Indoors & Outdoors: if you have a split system in which the condenser is located indoors, and the evaporator is located outdoors.
- Enter the CARB ID, which is the identification number of the asset in the CARB portal. Your administrator should copy the CARB ID form the CARB portal and paste it into the CARB ID field in Asset Manager.
- Make sure you specified the Install Date and Manufactured Date for the asset since these fields are mandatory for units tracked by CARB.
- Click Add Asset to complete the creation process.
Your new asset has been created and included in the CARB reporting.
Setting Up Assets for CARB Reporting Upon Editing Assets
Should you need to include existing assets in the CARB reporting, you can do that via the asset details page.
- Navigate to Assets (Equipment) > Manage Assets. The assets list opens.
- Apply the desired filters to quickly find the desired assets.
- Click the asset tag ID to open the asset details page.
- Under the Asset Details tab, make sure your asset has a Manufactured Date specified since this date is mandatory for assets tracked by CARB.
- Switch to the Refrigeration Details tab, and select the Is CARB Reporting checkbox.
- Enter the CARB ID, which is the identification number of the asset in the CARB portal. Your administrator should copy the CARB ID form the CARB portal and paste it into the CARB ID field in Asset Manager.
- Select the System Location:
- Indoors: if your refrigeration or HVAC unit is installed inside the building, for example, in the restaurant kitchen.
- Outdoors: if your unit is located outside the building, for example, in the back of the store or on the roof.
- Partially Indoors & Outdoors: if you have a split system in which the condenser is located indoors, and the evaporator is located outdoors.
- Click Save Сhanges. The asset refrigeration details have been updated.
Running the CARB Report
Every year you should run the CARB report on your refrigerated and HVAC assets that contain more than 50 pounds of refrigerant gases and operate in the state of California. The report stores detailed information about refrigerant leaks from refrigeration equipment and comfort cooling (HVAC) systems for the specified period of time. Once downloaded from Asset Manager, the report should be submitted to the CARB portal.
- Navigate to Assets (Equipment) > Administration.
- Switch to the Refrigerant Leak Settings section.
- Select the Run CARB Report checkbox.
- Click Save at the bottom of the page.
- Go back to Assets (Equipment), and select the Refrigerant Leak Events section.
- Click Download CARB Report on the right side of the page.
- In the overlay that opens, pick the From and To dates, specifying for which time period you need to generate the report.
- (Optional) locations from the corresponding drop-down list if you need to run the report for specific locations only. By default, the report includes assets tracked by CARB across all of your locations.
(Optional) Enter an email address that should be included in the CARB report as an email address of the main contact at each location.
The email you provide here will replace every email of the main contact across the locations in your CARB report.
Click Run Report.
The CARB report gets downloaded as an XML file to your device. You can review the file and then upload it to the CARB site.