As a business owner, deciding to install an air conditioning system to improve working conditions in the office is only the beginning. There are many things to be taken into consideration not least office air conditioning health and safety. In an effort to demystify some of the office air conditioning health and safety rules and regulations, we have put together this article to assist business owners to identify what their responsibilities are and how we can help as an accredited air conditioning company that understands the UK and EU regulations.

There are several tasks that are incumbent on the person responsible for the air conditioning system in the office. Ultimately this responsibility will lay with the business owner but you may have a building facilities manager or maintenance team to delegate these tasks to.

Legislation

The Legislation in the UK states that owning and operating equipment that contains fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) or ozone depleting substances (ODS) means the equipment must be managed to avoid polluting the environment. This is one of the most important conformance exercises. To help with the terminology, ODS are chemicals which cause the ozone layer to reduce thus allowing harmful rays to enter the atmosphere. F-Gases contain fluorine. These gases contribute to global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Managing these substances requires a plan to handle these gases to comply with legislation for office air conditioning safety. These tasks include containing, recovering and destroying all refrigerant gases in compliance with UK legislation, checking systems for leaks at least annually and more often for large scale systems and only allowing qualified people to handle these substances. If the system holds less than 3kg of F-gas, a leak test is not required, but over this amount and up to a maximum of 29kg an annual test is required.

This is just one of the basic compliance actions needed for equipment maintenance.

Office Air Conditioning Health & Safety

You may have decided upon a new air conditioning system because of Health and Safety Executive: inspections, building refurbishments or just because you want to improve conditions for workers.

[box type=”info”]Obviously you will be addressing such issues as controlling thermal effects in the office which may be caused by radiant heat sources, for example the sun through glass or even the lack of radiant heat or an inefficient heating system. Keeping office workers in a comfortable temperature and the correct level of humidity is vital and should be carefully thought out throughout your system design phase.[/box]

Health of workers

The office needs proper ventilation with clean air drawn from the outside fresh air to be circulated throughout the office building. This ventilation which is key in any office air conditioning system and will also remove humid warm air and circulate air which keeps the environment fresh. Stale air and dusty environments may impact on the health of office workers.

Maintaining Temperatures

Thermal comfort of a worker is a mix of environmental factors such as heat and humidity) combined with individual factors such as clothing and amount of physical effort expended. However in most office environments the work is sedentary so an ambient temperature can be maintained that will suit most workers – usually around 16 degrees Celsius.

The health risks increase where extremes of temperature are experienced at both ends of the spectrum – hot and cold so those workers who are expected to work in extremes, must be catered for accordingly.

Energy expenditure

Commercial property consumes 30% of UK energy. The UK Government has revised Building Regulations to reduce energy consumption and minimise CO2 emissions.

Building Regulations set minimum legal standards for every building component that consumes energy and applies a building efficiency rating. Other regulations set down minimum legal requirements for ventilation, to ensure fresh air for a productive and healthy working environment.

Office air conditioning health and safety and adherence to proper maintenance and compliance with regulations is an ongoing cost over and above the capital expenditure of the initial system. However, regular maintenance by professional air conditioning engineers will ensure that the systems comply with all regulatory and legal requirements and will ensure that the system is running in the most cost effective way thus using less energy. Our regular maintenance programmes in the long run are cheaper than paying for a one off inspection and repair of problems.

Working alongside our clients we endeavour to address office air conditioning health and safety concerns before work has begun.