TM44 Air Conditioning Inspections
If you run a building with air conditioning in it, there is a legal inspection you may not know you need — and the threshold catches out more businesses than any other rule in this field. HT Cooling carries out air conditioning inspections across Surrey, Berkshire and London.
The threshold that catches people out
An air conditioning system with an effective rated output of more than 12kW must be inspected by an accredited energy assessor, and the inspections must be no more than five years apart.
The part almost everyone misses: this is not about one big unit. Individual units that are each below 12kW count together. Four small wall units at 4kW apiece put a building over the threshold. Every air conditioning unit in a building under the control of one person is treated as a single system for this purpose. So a small office with a handful of ordinary splits is very often in scope and does not realise it.
Whose job is it?
The duty sits with the person who controls the operation of the system — in practice the building owner or the manager, not the contractor and not the tenant unless the lease says so. It is a statutory obligation, separate from routine maintenance.
What happens if you have not had one
Failure to commission, keep or provide an inspection report can result in a penalty charge notice. Trading Standards can ask to see the report at any time, and if they do, it must be provided within seven days. They can request it up to six months after the last day for compliance.
In practice, the moment it usually surfaces is a property transaction or a new lease, when a buyer's or tenant's solicitor asks for the report and there isn't one.
What the inspection involves
An accredited assessor examines the equipment and how it is being used, and reports on how efficiently the system is running and whether it is the right size for the building. The report sets out where energy is being wasted and what could be improved — and it is written to be useful, not just to tick the box. Common findings are systems that are far larger than the building now needs, controls set so that heating and cooling fight each other, and equipment that has never been cleaned.
You keep the report, and you produce it if you are asked for it.
What you should ask any provider
Whether the person doing the inspection is an accredited energy assessor, what you receive at the end, and whether the recommendations come with any obligation to buy work from them. A useful report tells you what to do next. It does not have to be a sales document.
The government's own guidance is published at the government's own guidance.