Are you responsible for looking after an air-conditioning system?

If so, you now have a legal duty to make sure that if the installation has a total system cooling capacity greater than 12KW, it is inspected at intervals not exceeding five years.

This mandatory inspection, which applies equally to dwellings and non-dwellings, is required by the European Union’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and must be carried out by an Accredited Energy Assessor. It includes an assessment of the efficiency of the system, a review of the load sizing, and advice on improvements or replacements, as well as alternative solutions that will improve the efficiency of the system. However, these requirements do not extend to refrigeration systems serving cold rooms, chilled food display cabinets, etc; or to air-conditioning and refrigeration systems in vehicles.

The key dates for these inspections to be completed are:

England, Wales and Northern Ireland

1st January 2008 – First inspections of air-conditioning systems over 12kW put into service since this date must have a first inspection within five years of it first being put into service.
4th January 2009 – First inspection of all existing air-conditioning systems over 250kW must have occurred.
4th January 2011 – First inspection of all remaining air-conditioning systems over 12kW must have occurred.

Scotland

For existing buildings, inspections will be phased in as follows:
• For all systems with an effective rated output of more than 250KW, from 4 January 2009 with first inspections completed by 4 January 2011
• For all other systems with an effective rated output of more than 12KW from 4 January 2011 with first
inspections completed by 4 January 2013

The purpose of the inspections is to give building owners and operators information about the performance of their building’s air-conditioning system/s, and to identify opportunities to save energy and cut operating costs.

Contact a fully registered and accredited air-conditioning specialist to arrange an inspection and to produce the written inspection report required by law.

Visit http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/huddersfield/business-guide/feature/sloan-air/70371