Do you have air conditioning; do you need a TM44 Energy Assessment?
Environmental Legislation can be daunting, there is just so much, a TM44 report is a legal requirement. First of all let’s cover some of the names they are called, TM44, Air-conditioning, Air Conditioning Energy Assessment, ACI, Air-conditioning Inspection.
In short, if you have air conditioning in your building and the kW cooling duties of them all added together comes to more than 12kW then yes you do, it is the law under EPDB Legislation.
The first inspection must have taken place within five years of the date when the first or oldest system was first put into service. Thereafter, inspections will be required within every 5 years and must be done by an accredited air conditioning assessor.
The key word here is the within, so if you have a brand new system installed today a TM44 is due, there is no division between old and new units, such as “don’t do those as they are not 5 years old yet”.
Ultimately your maintenance provider can tell you if you need a TM44 or not, but if not here are a few pointers.
If you can see data plates on the air conditioning units look for the cooling capacity (not the input), start adding up, once you reach 12kW stop, no need to count anymore you need a TM44.
In general, 2.5kW is smallest duty air conditioner most brands make, so if you have more than 4 air conditioning units you most likely need a TM44
Most air conditioning units are sized using a heat load calculation of 100-125 Watts per square meter, measure the size of the air-conditioned space, if it exceeds 120 square meters / 1291 square feet you most likely need a TM44.
Next, your choice of energy assessor is the biggest minefield you face; a poor assessor will give you a basic report, but good enough to get you through a tick the box requirement for a TM44 such as ISO14001. A good assessor, in addition, will identify savings on your site that you can actually do to save energy and money. I have no advice on this other than time is money, so you get what you pay for.
Moving onto cost, every price for a TM44 is very much bespoke and the swing in quotation costs can be quite dramatic depending on the assessor being self-employed, working at a company or a consultant, I know this as I share info with a few fellow assessors. Trying to help you below is a budget costing exercise for a TM44.
In a building with 120 square meters of air conditioned space expect to pay around £450 as a starting point, and then add £1 for every additional meter square meters of air conditioned space
Example 600m2 of air-conditioned space = £350 for the first 120m2 then £480 for the rest
TM44 estimate cost: £ 830.00 give or take 25% either way, and you would expect to normally find around 10-15 units on a site of this size.
Probably go up to about 2000m2 with this, after that it’s totally bespoke
Hope this information helps; if you need any more please just get in touch.