Is your air conditioning system operating within the law?
With so many directives and government papers, you would be forgiven for being confused about what inspections you need to have for your air conditioning. We have reviewed all the legislation and came up with a simple guide.
Before we start, it is important to know that it is the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) that mandates the inspection regime for air conditioning equipment within commercial buildings.
So all those acronyms (EPC, EPBD, F-Gas, DEC) you hear, all stem back in some way to this directive.
Statutory Requirement: |
Purpose |
Carried out by: |
| F-Gas Scheduled Statutory Inspection @ 12 months (systems over 3 kg refrigerant) @ 6 months (systems over 30kg refrigerant) @ 3 months (systems over 300kg refrigerant) |
Designed to ensure the integrity of your air conditioning system. | F-Gas Certified Engineer |
| F-Gas Statutory Inspection Requirements under BS EN 15004 – All AC assets labelled with an asset number – Central asset log held by building manager (inc. maintenance history, engineers F-Gas certification number, refrigerant added/removed, unit serial numbers) |
EC Regulation 842/2006 requires leakage checks to be carried out, repairs to be completed, gases to be recovered so that they do not escape to the atmosphere, certified personnel and companies to be used, labels to be used on some equipment, information to be reported to the Commission, and bans some F gas products. | F-Gas Certified Engineer |
| Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Whole building energy assessment, if building is over 500m2 and occupation commenced after April 2008. Certificates are valid for 10 years. |
Designed to help you improve efficiency and reduce your electricity consumption, operating costs and carbon emissions for your system. | Registered Energy Assessor |
| Registered Energy Assessor Inspection Completed within 5 years of installation |
Designed to help you improve efficiency and reduce your electricity consumption, operating costs and carbon emissions for your system. Captures those installations not yet requiring an EPC. | Registered Energy Assessor |