About the Campaign
The non-compliance costs campaign addresses the issue of non-compliance with air conditioning inspection requirements and f-gas legislation.
The campaign aims to highlight the growing concern in the industry about the lack of compliance with the Energy Performance in Buildings and F-Gas Regulations in an attempt to drive the government to deliver a more successful approach. With rates of compliance of Air Conditioning Inspections at less than 5% (compared to 80% for Display Energy Certificates and 70-75% for Energy Performance Certificates), we believe it is time for industry organisations to unite as one voice to raise the issue of non-compliance up the government agenda and promote the benefits of increasing compliance rates.
If the UK is to realise the reduction in carbon emissions expected from the introduction of energy certification legislation then the whole industry needs to act now to ensure that Air Conditioning Inspections fulfil their potential and that clients open their eyes to the benefits, both short and long term, that the inspections and their accompanying reports can bring to their buildings.
The business case for saving both money and carbon must be seen to be strong enough so that organisations start to view inspections as a real benefit, something that can truly add value to the business and have a real and lasting impact on the bottom line. The campaign will give the concerns of those across the industry more credibility and make the issue more visible. We aim to harness the support of as many individuals and organisations in the industry to make our case as successful as possible.
By signing up to support the campaign you will be helping to strengthen our campaign and our call to action for the government, and by downloading and displaying the campaign logo you will be helping us to give the issue greater visibility.
The Case for Air Conditioning Inspection
An Overview
- The current requirements of the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD) include the inspection of air conditioning systems in buildings with a cooling capacity over 12kW
- All systems put in place on or after 1stJanuary 2008 to be inspected within 5 years of installation
- All other air conditioning systems over 250kW output should have been inspected by 4th January 2009
- Any air conditioning systems above 12kW must be inspected by 4th January 2011
- An air conditioning report (ACR) is produced as a result of the inspection and is intended to detail recommendations on how the systems could be run more efficiently
- The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs have estimated that with the current trend in ALL air conditioning sales, the total UK stock will possibly reach up to 1.5 million units by 2020 compared to 280,000 in 1990. During that same period we could expect an increase of energy use to be 6,600 GWh/year or 3.6 MTCO2
- CIBSE currently estimates that fewer than 5% of the systems that qualify for inspection have had the survey undertaken. This would mean that potentially, approximately 50,000 qualifying systems from the 2009 deadline still need to be surveyed
- The EPBD Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) 2007suggested that the 2007 energy consumption for domestic and non-domestic air conditioning systems was approximately 14.4TWh and rising year on year. Based on this figure, and taking an average value of15% CO2 saved per project based on our case studies below, we can roughly estimate a 2.1TWh annual energy saving or around 1.15 million tonnes CO2 per year
Download case studies for organisations that have already commissioned air conditioning inspections and are already benefiting from reduced carbon emissions and lower energy costs. To see the business case for air conditioning inspections in full download the PDF here.
