Why air conditioning inspections are required

Having your air conditioning system inspected by an Energy Assessor is designed to improve efficiency and reduce the electricity consumption, operating costs and carbon emissions for your system. Energy inspections will highlight improvements to the operation of your existing systems or opportunities to replace older, less energy efficient systems or oversized systems with new energy efficient systems.

As the replacement of refrigerant is restricted in older systems (as established under other legislation), there is an additional incentive to improve or replace older systems with more modern energy efficient units.

Building owners and managers who control air conditioning systems have statutory obligations and duties of care in the operation and maintenance of air conditioning systems. The energy inspections discussed in this guide are in addition to the normal activities associated with the ownership and operation of air conditioning systems.

Inspection, maintenance and cleaning programmes maintain the ability of the system to provide healthy and comfortable environments for building occupants, limiting the escape of refrigerant gases and ensuring the safety of equipment. The practices and procedures needed to achieve these aims should be applied more frequently than the assessment for energy efficiency described here. It is outside the scope of this document to describe such procedures in detail, but an introduction to available professional and industry good practice guidance is included in annex A.