Information

Waiting for an internal review by Penzance Town Council of their handling of this request.

Dear Penzance Town Council,

This request follows legal and mandatory legislation under the European Performance of Buildings Directive and specifically TM44 Air Conditioning Assessments certification. Your Air Conditioning Assessments Certificates should be readily available at all times and be lodged on the government Landmark database. Failure to have appropriate Certificates will be subject to fines of £300 per building, each week.

Q. It is a legal requirement that you hold valid TM44 Air Conditioning Assessments if any building has a total of more than 12kw of air conditioning present. Certificates are valid from 5 years of the issue date. Have you undertaken a TM44 Air Conditioning Assessments?
Q. Who is the responsible person for ensuring that your buildings are surveyed and assessed, please provide the name, address, email address and telephone number of the responsible person.
Q. If your TM44 Air Conditioning Assessments Certificates are in place, what is their expiry date?
Q. What was the order value of the works placed with the Company which undertook the work?
Q. Provide a breakdown of the price per building if available.
Q. How many Certificates were produced?
Q. Was the Assessor independent as required under the Regulations?
Q. Name the Assessor organisation.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Evans

Louise Connell,

Dear Paul Evans

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request regarding the TM44 Air
Conditioning Assessment for Penlee House Gallery & Museum, a local
authority art gallery and museum run by Penzance Town Council.

 

I have referred to TM44 compliance advice on the ACI Specialist website
and it appears that the museum and gallery is exempt from a TM44 Air
Conditioning Assessment. The air handling system used in the gallery is
designed specifically to maintain valuable works of art at a steady
temperature and relative humidity (approximately 20 degrees C or 50% RH),
not for the comfort of the visitors. This means that conditions in the
gallery are kept at a steady level, regardless of the external weather
conditions, for the protection of artworks and to prevent their
deterioration.

 

“An air-conditioning system refers to any AC system where refrigeration is
used to provide cooling for the comfort of the occupants of the space.”

[1]http://www.acireports.co.uk/Air-Conditio...

 

I hope that this answers your enquiry.

 

Best wishes,

 

Louise

 

Louise Connell BA(Hons) AMA FRSA

Director, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Morrab Road, Penzance, TR18 4HE
Cornwall, UK

01736 363625

[2][email address]

[3]www.penleehouse.org.uk

[4]follow us on facebook

 

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Penlee Inspired & Crafts for Christmas

29 November 2014 - 10 January 2015

 

Dear Penzance Town Council,

 

This request follows legal and mandatory legislation under the European
Performance of Buildings Directive and specifically TM44 Air Conditioning
Assessments certification. Your Air Conditioning Assessments Certificates
should be readily available at all times and be lodged on the government
Landmark database. Failure to have appropriate Certificates will be
subject to fines of £300 per building, each week.

 

Q. It is a legal requirement that you hold valid TM44 Air Conditioning
Assessments if any building has a total of more than 12kw of air
conditioning present. Certificates are valid from 5 years of the issue
date. Have you undertaken a TM44 Air Conditioning Assessments?

Q. Who is the responsible person for ensuring that your buildings are
surveyed and assessed, please provide the name, address, email address and
telephone number of the responsible person.

Q. If your TM44 Air Conditioning Assessments Certificates are in place,
what is their expiry date? 

Q. What was the order value of the works placed with the Company which
undertook the work?

Q. Provide a breakdown of the price per building if available.

Q. How many Certificates were produced?

Q. Was the Assessor independent as required under the Regulations?

Q. Name the Assessor organisation.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Paul Evans

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.acireports.co.uk/Air-Conditio...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.penleehouse.org.uk/
4. https://www.facebook.com/PenleeHouseGall...

Dear Louise Connell,

Thank you for the provision of this information. The December 2013 guidance update from the Department for Communities and local government revised the legislation on process cooling, as follows;

Air conditioning systems that provide refrigeration for process applications, such as server rooms, would also require an inspection if that part of the system allows an inspection to be carried out.

Please refer back to your specialists as they appear misguided as to your requirements.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Evans

Steve Wright left an annotation ()

A search for "TM44" on WhatDoTheyKnow shows almost 1,000 similar requests have been submitted to schools, colleges, prisons, councils, etc. The various requesters (who all seem to share the same grammatical errors in their English) are quite aggressive in their responses to anyone who does not meet their request.

They claim to be undertaking "Departmental Research on compliance", but if so there is a fatal flaw in this - i.e. they ask if you have the certificates, to which you can answer "No", but as they do not ask if you actually need a certificate, the "No" answer could either mean you have not complied, or you don't need to comply.

Also, the statement that those who are non-compliant “will” be subject to a “fine of £300 a week per building" is pure nonsense and unnecessarily threatening. If convicted you "may" be liable for a fine of up to £300, but no-one is going to be taken to court every single week for the same offence.

Interestingly there is a firm based in Skelmersdale which does air conditioning surveys, and which makes a similarly misleading statement on its website.