The aim of the Air Conditioning Inspection Report is to outline any areas within the operation of all HVAC equipment that would improve in performance and reduce energy costs, with the introduction of any no-cost/ low-cost initiatives and any capital investment opportunities that may arise.
The survey covered the inspection of air conditioning systems, measuring the performance and powers of fans, and associated cooling electrical load, comparing performance with industry standards to identify energy savings whilst maintaining their minimum performance requirements.
A number of other observations are made during the inspection; these cover issues such as the condition of the air conditioning systems, appropriateness of maintenance regimes, cooling/building loads, fresh air volumes, air change rates and the control of ancillary units.
The TM44 inspections is as far as possible carried out by making visual observations of representative sample of the air conditioning equipment and other visual indicators such as refrigerant sight glasses, pressure, temperature or filter gauges, although where these are not available the inspector may have taken some test readings.
The Air Conditioning inspection also included an examination of records of design, construction and maintenance where made available.
Inspectors have a duty to comply with relevant health and safety legislation. This includes a duty to draw the building owner or manager’s attention to obvious instances of inadequate maintenance or neglect, where these might have implications for the health and safety of building occupants or the public.
Also covered in air conditioning inspection report, is the comparison of size and appropriateness of cooling plant against the cooling loads of the building; and the effectiveness of current maintenance regimes. All of which will enable you to optimise your buildings HVAC operations and reduce energy costs and Carbon Dioxide emissions. Also air conditioning systems which provide no comfort cooling (computer rooms, server rooms, Comms rooms, utility rooms, etc) are exempt from this survey and they are not covered by the inspection. |
The inspection process: The inspection process required under the EPB Regulations will examine the refrigeration equipment and air movement systems that are part of air conditioning systems, and their controls. It will also examine any documentation that helps understand the systems, or
indicates the extent to which the systems have been maintained. The inspector is also required to estimate whether the system is suitably sized for the cooling loads in the treated spaces, and to provide advice on ways in which improvement might be made. |
Good practice inspection and maintenance of air conditioning equipment: The CIBSE, in common with other professional and industry bodies, recommends that air conditioning equipment be regularly inspected and maintained to good practice standards. This is considered necessary for a variety of important reasons, including:
- maintaining healthy and comfortable conditions
for building occupants
- minimising loss of refrigerant gases that may
damage the atmosphere or contribute to global
warming
- ensuring the continued safe and efficient operation
of the equipment and extend its life.
what does Air conditioning inspection report covers?
The main elements we cover in air conditioning reports are :
1- General condition of air conditioning system, indoor and outdoor unit.
2-Carrying out survey to find any poor installation and refrigerant leakage .
3- Identifying any old refrigerant like R22.
4- Identifying any shortfall in programmer and incorrect date and time.
5- Identifying any blockage in the filters and grilles.
In air conditioning inspection we dont carry out any maintenance we wouldnt do any adjustment to system and its control, if we identify any problem we just show it on the air conditioning inspection report and suggest some reccomendations to solve the problem.
In air conditioning inspections we normally choose minimum 3 units or 10% of the existing units and carry out the air con survey on those samples.We as an energy assessors try to choose the units with worse conditions and problems as an sample however the recommendations might not be applicable for all other similar units.
Recommendations might be as simple and cheap as washing the filters, to very costly ones like replacing the unit.
In our recommendations about air conditioning systems we try to suggest cost effective and feasible solutions.In air conditioning inspection reports the reccomendations are in order to save money in short or long term, we also recomend how to save the energy, reduce the consumption and how to manage the air conditiong systems more effectively.
We try to reccomend using renewable energies like wind turbine, photovoltaics, solar panels and wind turbine and CHP (combined heat and power) units.
Reccomndetaions like submetering will not effect the energy consumption directly but it would help us to monitor the energy consumption more effectively and records the effects of different improvment on the heating and cooling systems.
In air conditioning report we also reccomend to make some changes on the building fabric by improving the insullation, using better glazing, on top of that some other reccomendations like using reflective coating and external shading are also part of our reccomndations as an energy assessor as these changing will reduce cooling load and will reduce energy consumption via air conditioning systems and also co2 emission.
Some recommendations in air conditiong inspection report are about how we can control the system more effectively so we normally reccomend using a better controller which benefits from 7 days ON/OFF Timer. If there is already a god controller on the site our energy assessors review the time and date setting, temperature setting, ON/OFF periods and compare it to the acutal occupancy periods and designed envirionmental conditions and if there is a problem they will try to address it in their report.
The most common problems we normally see on the sites are blocked filters and indoor grilles, blocked condensors or damaged fines, poor insullation around the pipes. Too high or too low temperature settings, operation of heating and cooling at the same time, Poor installation or maintenance, incorrect time and date. wrong or unsuitable programmer or controller, icing the condensors and internal system failiur.
In most of the cases the installed unit is oversized.
We run a quick calculation in order to find out if the system is oversized we use rule of thumb to size the air conditioning systems, if it is oversized we suggest to change the unit with smaller one if it is old or if it is new we recommend to switch off couple of units if there is more than one unit installed.
As a part of air conditioning inspection assessment we check how much refrigerant is present in the system and based on that devide them into 2 different categories 1- F gas refrigerant like R-410A and R-407C and R-134a under effect of EU Regulation 842/2006 on certain fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-Gases) applications containing 3 kg or more of fluorinated greenhouse gases shall be checked for leakage at least once every 12 months.
2- ozone deplation gasses like R-22 or R-11 (Under effect of EC Regulation No 2037/2000,This is EC Regulation on HCFC refrigerant. This Regulation aims to reduce emissions of HCFC) the operator of the system must ensure that air conditioning systems containing 3 kg or more of HCFC refrigerant (including R22) is checked for leakage by certified personnel on a regular basis (every 12 months).
We also make recommendation on systems bigger than 25Kw.Based on The Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000, vapour compression refrigeration system where the installed power exceeds 25 kW requires a written scheme of examination. Users and owners of pressure systems are required to demonstrate that they know : 1- The safe operating limits, principally pressure and temperature, of their pressure systems, 2- They need to ensure that a suitable written scheme of examination is in place before the system is operated. 3- They also need to ensure that the pressure system is actually examined in accordance with the written scheme of examination.
Refrigerant leakagege is a very important part of the report too as refrigerant all have negative effects on environment and destroy ozone in the atmosphere, old refrigerant like R-22 and R-11 have much bigger effect on ozone compare to new refrigerants like R-410A or R-407C.As an air conditioning inspector we are responsible to check the units for any leakage and identifying them by finding oily stains on the pipes.
Poor insulation is very common in sites. As an unwritten rule insulations around pipes needs to be replaced every 5 years but in most of the sites we find old insulations. In some sites insulation is not properly covering all the pipes. Energy losses from uninsulated or poor insulated pipes are the main source of energy waste in the air conditioning systems.
Very often while we are carrying out the air conditioning surveys we come a cross with evidence of icing on the condensors.Evidence of icing on the fins indicates this system is not functioning correctly.
It can be cased by different reasons, probably as a result of heating and cooling operating at the same time, or internal fault in the condenser or inaccurate sensors or even blocked filters can be the reason.
Engage expert to look at the indoor and outdoor unit and solve the problem.
We also record the pipes temperature (before condensore which is coming back from indoor unit and after process which is coming from condensore and going to the indoor unit).
The temperature diffrence generally shows either the unit is functioning properly or not
.Very small differnce (smaller than 10C) and very big difference (bigger than 30C) are the signs of faulty system.No exact temperatures can be provided as a refrence as the pipe temperatures are hugy depends on indoor and outdoor conditions. |
