When we come to inspect the site for your air conditioning inspection report it is helpful if there is access to documentation related to the system along with any maintenance or service documents. Access will be required to equipment that may be located in plant rooms, or outside the building, including rooftops or other locations with limited provision for access. In all cases, the building owner or manager should agree the means for safe access with the energy assessor, following a health and safety risk assessment of the individual situation. The energy assessor may need to be accompanied by the responsible building manager or maintenance agent at all times.
Some additional access will be needed, for example to the inside of AHUs or ducts. This must be provided and supervised by the responsible building manager or maintenance agent with due regard to the safety of the energy assessor and to building occupants. This would require the system to be turned off to allow safe access, so arrangements may need to be made for this outside working hours to avoid disruption to business. Similarly, the air conditioning inspector may need to access a sample of components, such as fan coil units, which may be hidden above suspended ceilings. Again, the building manager as appropriate should provide access.
Building owners and managers should not expect the air conditioning inspection to identify hazards or unsafe aspects of the installation, operation, or maintenance of systems that should be identified and addressed by other arrangements, nor should they expect the air conditioning inspector to fix any problem identified as part of the inspection.
The purpose of the inspection and report is to ensure that building owners or managers are provided with basic information regarding the efficiency of the air-conditioning systems that they control, together with advice on how the energy efficiency or effectiveness of these systems might be improved.
Acting on the advice in the inspection report and rectifying faults or making appropriate improvements, where this is attractive and cost effective, may result in immediate improvements to the effectiveness of air-conditioning systems, or reduce the operating costs.
In some cases the costs of providing both heating and cooling may be reduced, in cases where these two systems are unnecessarily in use at the same time due to inappropriate controls or settings. In many cases, it will be clear that the building and systems are already well understood, documented and commissioned, with records available showing that the equipment has been regularly maintained to a good standard.
In such cases, an energy inspection could be reduced in extent and the inspection report brief, with the main content advising on opportunities for load reduction or on alternative solutions not previously considered.
However, in other cases the energy assessor may find it necessary to suggest relatively basic maintenance, such as cleaning or repairs, to equipment whose efficiency has evidently suffered through neglect. Poor insulation for example is very common. As an unwritten rule insulations around pipes needs to be replaced every 5 years but in most inspections, this insulation is much older and sometimes not covering the pipes at all. Energy losses from uninsulated or poorly insulated pipes are the main source of energy waste in the air conditioning systems, yet it is a simple fix with big results.
We hope these previous 3 articles have helped given a good insight into what you can expect when visited by your air conditioning inspector.
