Air Conditioning Inspectors

Air Conditioning Inspectors & Air Conditioning Energy Assessors will be required for Industrial, Commercial Property and Buildings as part of the EU EPBD Directive commencing 2008. Inspection of HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) systems will require to be inspected to ensure that the systems are operating efficiently. Energy Assessment of Commercial/Industrial Buildings will require inspection of:

Commercial Air Condition Units - Air Handling Units (AHU's)
Commercial Boiler Systems - Mains Gas or Oil Fired
Heating Control Systems
Air Conditioning Control Systems
Boiler Systems for Commercial Use

Commercial Property managers will be required to produce Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) provided by a qualified energy assessment assessor (SAP or SBEM) for Existing and New Build Commercial Property Units.

Buildings that are subject to survey will be provided with recommendations for system improvements if required, by the air conditioning inspector.

Public Buildings will also require inspection of systems as part of air conditioning energy assessment for Display Energy Certificates. Implementation will start in January 2008, and systems over 250 kW must be inspected by January 2009. Systems over 12 kW must be inspected by January 2011. Thereafter inspections must be repeated within a five years timeframe.

EPBD Article 9 Air Conditioning Systems Inspections details the scope of inspection EPBD PDF Download. Energy Assessment of equipment and controls will commence during 2008 and is scheduled for completion in 2011, such assessment will be carried out by accredited air conditioning assessors who meet the requirements of the National Occupational Standards. It is widely considered that existing maintenance and repair companies will provide suitable training for engineers to obtain the required standards.

Asset owners will be served with a checklist after the inspection has been completed, the checklist will outline recommendations for improvement of air conditioning systems within commercial buildings. The objective is to achieve an improved energy rating for the building, in the future, a building with a good asset rating will be considered more favourably if the energy costs are lower, thus reducing overheads. New Build commercial and Business property will inherently have a better efficiency rating for installed air conditioning (HVAC) systems as the technology and design implementation will be to the latest regulations.

Building managers are expected to provide documentation for the installed system To assemble documentation describing the system and any existing inspection and maintenance regime, where this has not been prepared in readiness for the inspection. This would form a separate and supplementary task. CIBSE TM44 publication includes legislation, sizing, estimating, performance, cooling load for inspection of air conditioning systems or HVAC. Industrial Buildings will also require a similar inspection.

The CLG (Communities and Local Government) has stated the following requirements for commercial applications:
"Many commercial buildings and an increasing number of homes have air conditioning systems. These systems should be carefully maintained and managed in order that they do not consume too much energy. We are therefore introducing measures to ensure that larger air conditioning systems are regularly inspected. Air conditioning systems where the total system cooling capacity is greater than 12kWr (whether in dwellings or non-dwellings) will be inspected at intervals not exceeding 5 years."
The inspection will include an assessment of efficiency, a review of their sizing and advice on improvements or replacements and alternative solutions. It is recommended that facilities managers who have control of business assets undertake regular inspection of existing air conditioning equipment in order to maintain efficiency of energy usage. Such measures will improve energy ratings of such systems, and more importantly enhance asset ratings, particularly for public buildings that require Display Energy Certificates (DEC) as part of their operational rating.