Since January 4 2011, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) has required the TM44 regulations inspection of air conditioning systems in buildings with a cooling capacity over 12kW.
Who is affected?
All building owners and managers in England and Wales with control of air-conditioning systems with an effective rated output of more than 12kW are required to ensure compliance with the regulations. This includes systems consisting of individual units which are less than 12kW but whose combined effective rated output is more than 12kW.
What do I need to do?
Under the TM44 Regulations, obligated persons are required to ensure that inspections of their units are carried out in an independent manner by an energy assessor to avoid any conflict of interest. The inspection includes an assessment of the system’s efficiency and a review of sizing and advice on efficiency, improvements, and replacement or alternative solutions.
Why are Air-Conditioning inspections required?
By having your Air-Conditioning system inspected by an accredited air conditioning energy assessor, it is likely that you will be able to improve efficiency, reduce energy consumption, operating costs and the carbon emissions of the system. After the assessment, the energy assessor will be able to make recommendations for improvement to the existing systems or opportunities to replace older, less energy efficient systems or oversized systems with new energy efficient systems.
How often are inspections required?
Regular inspections of systems are mandatory and must be no more than five years apart. Under the TM44 Regulations, the first inspection of the affected air conditioning systems must be carried out as follows:
- For all systems first put into service on or after 1 January 2008, the first inspection must have taken place within five years of the date when the system was first put into service
- For other Air-Conditioning systems, where the effective rated output is more than 250kW the first inspection must have taken place by 4 January 2009
- For other Air-Conditioning systems, where the effective rated output is more than 12kW the first inspection must have taken place by 4 January 2011
Non-compliance with TM44 Regulations?
Fines
Failure to commission, keep or provide an air conditioning inspection report which has been lodged on to the Central Register could result in fines from £300 per offence (per a building / a unit). These fines could be repeated at the discretion of Trading Standards enforcement officer on a daily, monthly, quarterly or annual basis.
A further penalty can be issued for failure to provide a copy of the air conditioning inspection report when requested to an officer of an enforcement authority within seven days. This is fixed at £200 (per a building / a unit).
In addition to these penalties, it will still be necessary to commission the documents; otherwise, further offences will be committed. The Air Conditioning Inspection Reports must be lodged on the Government database. Enforcement Officers can check at any time whether a public building is compliant with the legislation as Trading Standards are able to check remotely whether a building has a report lodged in the Government database.
To get advice, obtain a quote or to discuss your business needs please call Mark
on 07951 022 907 or email mark@highstreetepc.co.uk.
