Just an update on several things that have been happening on the air con energy assessment front.

Firstly- we seem to be getting quite alot of enforcement. As most of you know I was asked through my company to train the Trading Standards Officers and we have completed training with over 200 TSOs now. They are from all over the country and we are seeing the first enforcement actions actually happening. One TSO from the South Coast was out knocking last weekend on a friday night on Night Club doors asking for how much air con they had and as to whether they had their inspection completed( this is totally genuine) Talk about getting a free night out/ how to get free beer!!!!

The one thing that the trading standards officers constantly did say however is that they wanted ALL the reports filed on the landmark register. As you know the government has currently issued consultaion on this. Whilst the vast majority of inspections being carried out are being lodged the CIBSe and BESCA ones are not.

We recently signed a deal for 3000 (three thousand) air con energy inspections all over the UK and are in need of air con energy assessors. They must be FGAS registered guys, and able to file on the landmark so either HV+CA or QUIDOS or ECMK or STROMA accreditations are acceptable. JUst look up energy intelligence and give us a ring if interested. If you know of anyone then push them our way.

Keep smiling everyone

Chris

Surely the most important part of encouraging conformance is not the inspection, but the awareness that an inspection could happen.

At the moment businesses are wary of paying a reasonable sum of money for something that as far as they are aware is not being enforced, there is also a perception out there that these rules may change with the new government. (I am not saying this is correct, but the doubt is there).

In my humble opinion only high profile/media covered inspections will get the AC Report ball rolling.

I went to a training session (v. good) by Chris Alexander, and he inferred that there was a company in South Wales which had been prosecuted for non-compliance. They had 7 X VRVs systems. I thought the fine was supposed to be £300/building. This is too small. But Chris said that they were fined 7 X £300 (for each system) = £2,100 which is a more meaningful level of fine. I have not been able to substantiate any company details/dates etc. and so at the moment, any enforcement appears virtual.

We are desperate for TSOs to do something to get the A/C assessments moving. At the moment, they appear to be doing nothing. The Government are paying lip service to the new EBPD regulations and nobody seems to shout about it. Inspections should be completed by stick AND carrot (i.e. the benefits (saving money) from the advice given in the report). To date, advice given to reduce energy consumption/reduce CO2 emissions is falling on deaf ears too as companies are really struggling to stay afloat. I find it all very frustrating.

Even some evidence that the TSO's had been trained so potentially 'could' be thinking about, one day, doing an inspection would be enough for some. But you cannot really expect businesses in a recession to pay for a survey that the government is (as far as we can prove) doing absolutely nothing to enforce the requirement for.

Whilst the CIBSE campaign is great, if just the potential of saving energy was enough to encourage business, then they would all have had one years ago.

So if anyone out there has any evidence at all of an inspection, a prosecution or even TSO's being trained so that they might one day conduct an inspection, that would be very useful indeed to all of us.