air conditioning inspection | air conditioning inspections
What does conditioning inspection report covers?
The main elements we cover in air conditioning report 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 don’t carry out any maintenance we wouldn’t 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 recommendations 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 a 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 recommendations are in order to save money in short or long term, we also recommend how to save the energy, reduce the consumption and how to manage the air condition systems more effectively.
We try to recommend using renewable energies like wind turbine, Photovoltaics, solar panels and wind turbine and CHP (combined heat and power) units.
Recommendations like sub metering 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 improvement on the heating and cooling systems.
In air conditioning report we also recommend to make some changes on the building fabric by improving the insulation, using better glazing, on top of that some other recommendations like using reflective coating and external shading are also part of our recommendations 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 conditioning inspection report are about how we can control the system more effectively so we normally recommend 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 actual occupancy periods and designed environmental 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 condensers or damaged fines, poor insulation 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 condensers and internal system failure.
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 divide 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 depletion 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 leakage 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 un-insulated 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 condensers. 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 condenser which is coming back from indoor unit and after process which is coming from condenser and going to the indoor unit).
The temperature difference generally shows either the unit is functioning properly or not
.Very small difference (smaller than 10C) and very big difference (bigger than 30C) are the signs of faulty system. No exact temperatures can be provided as a reference as the pipe temperatures are hugely depends on indoor and outdoor conditions.
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