TM44

This guidance is intended to help anyone who manages or controls an air conditioning system to understand their obligations under the Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012, as amended in 2020 (the EPB regulations). This guidance aims to explain how the EPB regulations work in practice, how they should be applied, what your responsibilities are and when air conditioning inspections are required.

While this guidance aims to explain how the requirements will work in practice, any interpretation of the regulations is offered only as a guide. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) cannot provide legal advice. Therefore, it is important to read and understand the regulations and for individuals themselves to take a view on whether their systems fall within the requirements of the regulations. In cases of doubt independent legal advice should be sought.

This guidance does not address other statutory inspection requirements, such as those which cover health and safety requirements, nor does it cover inspection under the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gas Regulations and associated requirements, which are outside the remit of the EPB Regulations.

This guidance incorporates extracts from the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), ‘TM44: Inspection of air conditioning systems: a guide to EPBD compliance’ (CIBSE TM44 guidance), with the permission of CIBSE, which describes the appropriate assessment methodology.

This document is part of a suite of documents that explains the requirements for energy performance certificates (EPCs), display energy certificates (DECs) and air conditioning inspections in England and Wales only. Buildings in Northern Ireland and Scotland are subject to separate regulatory requirements and are not covered by or referred to in this guidance.

An air conditioning system inspection by an accredited air conditioning energy assessor (the energy assessor) is designed to improve efficiency, reduce energy consumption, reduce operating costs and reduce carbon emissions. The energy assessor will highlight how the operation of existing systems can be improved 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 in other legislation), there is an additional incentive to improve or replace older systems with more modern energy efficient units.

The person who controls the operation of the system, such as the building owner or manager, has statutory obligations and duties of care related to the operation and maintenance of air conditioning systems. The inspections referred to in this guide are in addition to the standard 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 these procedures in detail.

All air conditioning systems with an effective rated output of more than 12kW must be regularly inspected by an energy assessor. The inspections must be no more than five years apart.

The regulations require the first inspection of air conditioning systems in scope to be carried out as follows:

• for all systems first put into service on or after 1 January 2008, the first inspection must have taken place within five years of the date when the system was first put into service
• for other air conditioning systems, where the effective rated output is more than 250kW, the first inspection must have taken place by 4 January 2009
• for other air conditioning systems, where the effective rated output is more than 12kW, the first inspection must have taken place by 4 January 2011
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Only air conditioning systems with an effective rated output of more than 12kW are affected by these regulations. This will include systems consisting of individual units which are less than 12kW, but whose combined effective rated output is more than 12kW.

The effective rated output is the maximum calorific output in kW stated by the manufacturer of the system as delivered during continuous operation while complying with the useful efficiency indicated by the manufacturer.

One or more air conditioning units within a building controlled by a single person are considered to comprise a single air conditioning system for the purposes of the regulations.

‘Air conditioning system’ means a combination of all components required to provide a form of air treatment in which the temperature is controlled or can be lowered; and includes systems which combine such air treatment with the control of ventilation, humidity and air cleanliness. (As defined in The Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 (as amended)). This guidance is intended to cover any air conditioning system where refrigeration is used to provide cooling for the comfort of the occupants of the building.

There is no exemption within the regulations which restricts the inspection and maintenance of systems to those purely for the comfort of occupants. Refrigeration provided solely for process applications, such as cold stores and pharmaceutical production, can be inspected. However, this guidance is not intended to cover dedicated process cooling systems.

Fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) are powerful greenhouse gases, with environmental impacts many times greater than that of carbon dioxide. F-gases replaced ozone depleting substances, which are now entirely banned except in very limited circumstances. The most common types of F-gases are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are often used as the refrigerant in air conditioning systems.

A phase-down of HFC use was introduced by the Kigali Amendment to the United Nations Montreal Protocol in 2016. The Amendment requires an 85% reduction in HFC use by 2036. The EU and UK meet their Kigali obligations through the EU F-gas Regulation 517/2014. After the end of the EU Exit Transition Period, the F-gas Regulation and its supplemental legislation will be retained in domestic law as it applies to Great Britain, with Northern Ireland remaining within, and subject to, the EU’s F-gas system and legislation.

Alongside provisions for the reduction in HFC use, the F-gas Regulation sets out a framework of obligations to minimise the risk of emissions. This includes maintenance, regular leak checking and repair requirements for equipment containing F-gases, such as air conditioning systems, as well as training and certification requirements for technicians and companies that work on them. Further information on F-gas obligations can be found on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) website.

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.

The air conditioning inspection report must include, but is not limited to, the following information:

• the address of the building in which the system is located
• the name of the accredited energy assessor
• the name and address of the energy assessor’s employer, or the name under which a self-employed assessor trades and his address
• the date on which the inspection occurred
• the name of the government approved air conditioning accreditation scheme[footnote 1] of which the accredited energy assessor is a member

All air conditioning inspection reports produced on or after the 6 April 2012 must contain a valid reference number. This number can only be generated once the air conditioning inspection report has been lodged on the Energy Performance of Buildings Register (“the register”).

The person who controls the operation of an air conditioning system must:

• ensure an inspection has been done in accordance with the requirements and timetable of the regulations
• keep the most recent air conditioning inspection report provided by an energy assessor
• give any air conditioning inspection report to any person taking over responsibilities with respect to the control of the air conditioning system

If the control of an air conditioning system is passed to another person and that person has not been given an air conditioning inspection report by the previous operator of the system, the system must be inspected within three months of the new operator taking over control of the system.

The person who controls the operation of the system is regarded as the person who controls the technical functioning of the system, not someone who does no more than adjust the temperature or whose only responsibility is to adjust the controls.

The owner of the system will usually control the operation of the system even where day-to-day operation is contracted out to another person or organisation. Where the occupier of the building takes total responsibility for a building and its services (e.g. full repairing and insuring lease), then the occupier will control the system.

Where the operation and management of the system is carried out on a day-to-day facilities management basis, or a servicing company provides routine servicing and maintenance, the contract may specify the facilities management, or servicing company, as the controller of the system with responsibility for ensuring that inspections are carried out. Depending on the terms of the contract the facilities management or servicing company may become responsible under the regulations also. In such cases, however, the landlord or building occupier retains a parallel duty to ensure that an air conditioning system has been inspected.

Where air conditioning systems are installed locally by the building occupier, the responsibility will lie with the occupier as they own the system.

An inspection of an air conditioning system must be carried out by an energy assessor who is a current member of an accreditation scheme. The energy assessor must make a copy of the air conditioning inspection report available to the building owner or manager, or to the person who controls the operation of the system, as soon as practicable after the inspection date, but only after the air conditioning inspection report is entered on the register. Only air conditioning inspection reports which have been produced and lodged on the register by accredited energy assessors are valid reports.

In certain circumstances, data gatherers, working under the supervision of the energy assessor, enable the energy assessor to produce the air conditioning inspection reports for larger and sometimes more complex buildings and portfolios of buildings. Data gatherers must have a contractual relationship with an energy assessor, or the company employing the energy assessor, to provide professional assistance to gather the information needed to carry out an energy assessment of a building for the purpose of issuing an air conditioning inspection report. The energy assessor must be able to verify the data and supervise how and by whom it is collected. For the purposes of effective quality control and assurance, the energy assessor must not sanction any practice that is contrary to the quality of the air conditioning inspection report. MHCLG has provided accreditation schemes with guidance on this issue.

Accreditation schemes (Annex A) are responsible for managing energy assessors and for quality-assuring air conditioning inspection reports produced by their energy assessors. Accreditation schemes must ensure that energy assessors are competent and possess the appropriate skills to conduct energy assessments.

To become a member of an accreditation scheme, the energy assessor will need to:

• demonstrate their competence, either by having a recognised qualification from an awarding body, or approved prior experience and learning equivalent, to the national occupational standard requirements
• maintain appropriate professional indemnity cover
• update their skills and knowledge regularly
• participate in the accreditation schemes’ quality assurance procedures
• abide by accreditation scheme advice and guidance
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The air conditioning inspection report must be kept in a safe place so that it can be used to inform subsequent inspections or passed to a new system owner or manager. The air conditioning inspection report should be kept with maintenance and/or other energy records, for example, in a building log book.

Newer buildings may already be provided with a building log book satisfying the requirements of Part L of the Building Regulations to provide the building owner or manager with information about the building, its fixed services and their maintenance requirements. The building log book would normally be the most suitable place to keep records of the air conditioning inspection, together with other such inspection results e.g. fluorinated greenhouse gas inspections. Where a log book does not exist, it would be useful to keep air conditioning inspection records in a relevant section of the building’s operation and maintenance documents.

Other information it would be helpful to keep in the building log book or if a log book is not available, with the building’s operation and maintenance documents would be the preparatory details for packaged cooling systems or for centralised cooling systems. Further information can be found in sections 2.2 and 2.3 of the CIBSE TM44, guidance (or similar equivalent guidance). Information that would be helpful to retain includes:

• a copy of the fully signed air conditioning inspection report of the air conditioning inspection produced by the energy assessor
• the recommendation report and any data used to prepare an EPC for the building (where one has been produced)
• the recommendation report produced to accompany a DEC (if one is required)
• the reports from any other regular inspections, such as inspections for refrigerant leakage, involving the building’s air conditioning or heating systems

This information can then be provided for subsequent inspections and it may help to minimise the time needed to carry out an inspection.

The effective output of an individual air conditioning unit or system may be given on the rating plate attached to the unit. It may also be found in the operating and maintenance manual or on the manufacturer’s website. Alternatively, where the system is covered by a maintenance contract, the capacity should be known by the contractor and should be reported in the maintenance records they supply. Where there is more than one unit in a system, it may be necessary to aggregate the ratings shown on the rating plate of each unit.

The guidelines below are an approximate indication of typical figures for installed capacity for various spaces and may help you determine whether your system is within the scope of the regulations. Cooling requirements depend on a wide range of circumstances, including the fabric, location and orientation of the building, as well as the activities and the number of people occupying the building. Older systems are also likely to have higher rated outputs for a given floor area. Where more specific figures are needed, these should be calculated taking account of the particular circumstances of the building and its use.

If it is not clear whether a building reaches the threshold, the installed capacity of the system must be determined by appropriate inspection, calculation and enquiries. In other, more specialised buildings, the wide range of factors which influence system capacity means that the capacity of these systems should be determined by a suitably qualified person. If the information is not already available, the size of the system should be determined on a case-by-case basis.

For larger systems, a central cooling system serving an office building of 2,000m2 is likely to be 250kW rated output. Cooling systems serving meeting rooms which may be used by large numbers of people, such as council chambers, may exceed the 250kW threshold for lower floor areas.