What advice can I expect to receive from the air conditioning report?

The purpose of the air conditioning inspection report is to ensure that the building owner or manager is provided with information regarding the efficiency of the air conditioning systems that they control, together with advice on how to improve the energy efficiency of the system, to identify opportunities to save energy and carbon and to reduce operating costs.

The air conditioning inspection report will include at least the following details:

• the likely efficiency of the system and any suggestions for improvement
• any faults identified during the inspection and suggested actions
• the adequacy of equipment maintenance and any suggestions for improvement
• the adequacy of the installed controls and control settings and any suggestions for improvement
• the current size of the installed system in relation to the cooling load and any suggestions for improvement
• consideration of the capabilities of the system to optimise its performance under typical operating conditions
• a summary of the findings and the key recommendations

There is no legal requirement to act on the recommendations. However, acting on the advice and key recommendations in the air conditioning inspection report and rectifying faults, or making the appropriate improvements, where this is attractive and cost effective, will contribute to the efficient running of air conditioning systems. It will also reduce carbon emissions and the operating costs for the building occupants.

In some cases, the costs of providing both heating and cooling may be reduced, where these two systems are in use at the same time unnecessarily, due to inappropriate control or settings. In many cases, it will be clear that the building and its system 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, the scope of an inspection could be reduced and the air conditioning inspection report brief, with the main content advising on opportunities for load reduction or alternative solutions not previously considered. 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.

Cleaning operations or adjustments to controls do not form part of the inspection procedure, even where they might be carried out simply and with significant immediate effect to improve efficiency. The inspection is not intended, or expected, to involve any physical work of this nature as this could change the level of professional risk to the energy assessor. Authority to carry out this work would be needed in a separate arrangement with the energy assessor, provided they have the necessary competence to do this work. However, the building owner or manager may well be able to carry out some alterations themselves as the inspection is carried out, provided they agree with the energy assessor’s observations.

Most air conditioning inspection reports are likely to contain advice with a combination of simple low or no cost measures and measures where some investment may be required to apply the measures, or to investigate the potential of applying measures. The building owner or manager should also be provided with access to, or informed about how to obtain advice on the ongoing management of the systems.