Thursday 18 October 2012

Air Conditioning & F Gas Inspections Part 2

When is an Energy Performance Certificate required?
  • Whenever a building is let, sold or constructed.
When is a Display Energy Certificate (DEC) required?
  • For public buildings that cover an area greater than 1000m squared.
  • And that the building is either:
    • Actually visited by members of the public.
    • Or used by a public authority or public institution that services a large number of people.
The other type of inspection that is required for air conditioning systems in addition to general air conditioning inspections is a F Gas inspection.

F Gas refers to fluorinated greenhouse gases that EU directives following the Kyoto Protocol are committed to monitoring. F gases include Hydrofluorocarbons, Perfluorocarbons and Sulphur Hexafluoride. Hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs are what you will have to worry about as an owner of an air conditioning system as these are commonly used as a refrigerant. The gases are known to be far stronger contributors to global warming than carbon dioxide, so minimising their release is crucial to preventing anthropogenic climate change.

The EC Regulation 842/2006 states that leakage checks are to be carried out, that repairs must be completed to any faults found and that any F Gas that may have been released by these faults in the air conditioning system must be collected.

F Gas inspections follow a different timetable to general air conditioning inspections, which are only required once every five years.

The F Gas inspection timetable is as follows:
  • The inspection must be performed at least once every twelve months for all air conditioning systems containing 3kg or more F gases.
  • For air conditioning systems containing 30kg or more of F gases, an inspection must be carried out at least once every six months.
  • Those air conditioning systems that contain 300kg or more of F gases must be inspected at least once every three months.
  • Any air conditioning system that has had a leakage repaired must undergo another inspection no more than one month after the repair to ensure that it was sufficient to contain the problem.
BPM Maintenance are a property maintenance company based in Bath that offer air conditioning Bath and air conditioning installation Bath.

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