Facts & advice about Air Conditioning Inspections

Air Conditioning Inspections are new & MANDATORY 5 yearly site inspections (like 5 yearly wiring tests & inspections) and are applicable to ALL buildings with more than 12kW (cooling duty) of air conditioning equipment installed. They are a new requirement and are ADDITIONAL to any existing Servicing & F-Gas compliance regimes.

Read on for the full script on Air Conditioning Inspections for buildings....

Most building owners already have their air conditioning systems maintained - this makes sense as proper maintenance will reduce operating costs and energy usage. As part of that routine maintenance, most companies carry out the mandatory Annual Refrigerant Leak Testing that is required. But take note, the Air Conditioning Inspections are ADDITIONAL to the standard servicing & leak testing that may (or may not) be carried out already.

The nearest parallel we can find elsewhere is with Vehicle Servicing & MOT Testing - Businesses obviously have a statutory duty, under H & S legislation, to ensure proper servicing of company vehicles. However, there is also a statutory requirement to have vehicles over three years old MOT tested - The servicing & MOT testing aren't necessarily carried out by the same people or at the same time.

It is now the same with building air conditioning - There is a legal requirement (under both F-Gas (refrigerant) & H & S legislation) to have the equipment serviced and a new additional requirement to have five yearly Air Conditioning Inspections carried out.

Is there any good news?

Absolutely! Airconwarehouse are applying their no-nonesense pricing approach to Air Conditioning Inspection Reports, just as they do with equipment sales, servicing & installation.
The prices for the TM44 reports/certificates are based on what it costs to produce them, not simply plucked out of the sky or "structured" according to what they think the customer can afford.

The actual site inspections will be carried out by F-Gas "CAT 1" Qualified Air conditioning engineers - mostly with more than 10 years experience (many with 20 years plus!) - and not by non-technical "data collectors" as currently used by some companies.

The Airconwarehouse reports will be in the Government "Landmark" format. This is widely expected to become the only acceptable format after 2011.

Finally - Things to avoid when buying Air Conditioning Inspections/TM44 Reports.

1. Avoid buying reports from companies that don't use qualified and EXPERIENCED Category 1 Air Conditioning Engineers - Some companies are more than happy to learn all about air conditioning at you expense...

2. Avoid using companies that send "data collectors" to to carry out your Air Conditioning Inspections - It's a bit like having the garage receptionist carry out the MOT on your car - The paperwork would look fine but the content will be lacking....

3. Avoid companies that offer reports that can't be lodged on the Landmark database website (ndepcregister.com) - This is widely tipped to be the only acceptable format after 2011.

Download the Communities & Local Government guide to Air Conditioning Inpsections for Buildings HERE