Purpose and intended use
This website provides technical reference content on UK domestic air-conditioning compliance. It is intended to support professional interpretation, dispute avoidance, and defensible reporting by installers, engineers, surveyors, inspectors, and compliance consultants.
Content is written to clarify regulatory and technical intent, highlight common misinterpretations seen in practice, and make terminology and obligations easier to apply consistently.
The content is not a substitute for statutory instruments, approved documents, product documentation, or project-specific professional judgement.
Scope
The scope is domestic or domestic-scale air-conditioning and associated building-services considerations, with emphasis on compliance-relevant interfaces such as:
- building regulations and associated approved guidance (including energy and commissioning obligations where applicable)
- refrigerant and environmental obligations that arise in residential contexts (including competence and recordkeeping expectations)
- definitional clarity (e.g., compliance vs performance, verification vs commissioning, design intent vs installed outcome)
- evidencing and documentation, including what is typically relied upon in inspection, handover, and disputes
The site does not provide installation instructions, step-by-step procedures, or bespoke design advice.
Source hierarchy and selection
Where possible, content is anchored to primary and authoritative sources. Sources are prioritised in the following order:
- Statutory instruments and regulator guidance (where directly applicable)
- Approved Documents and official government guidance
- Recognised British/European standards and established industry codes of practice
- Manufacturer technical documentation (used for factual product behaviours and declared performance only)
- Case-derived practice signals from recurring professional disputes and inspection outcomes (used to explain common failure modes, not to create new requirements)
Lower-quality sources (forums, marketing materials, secondary summaries) are not used as authority. They may be referenced only to illustrate common misunderstandings and are treated as non-normative.
Interpretation principles
Domestic air-conditioning compliance often fails in the “grey zone” between what a system does and what can be evidenced. The site therefore applies the following principles when interpreting obligations:
- Distinguish legal duty, guidance, and good practice. Where a statement reflects guidance rather than a strict legal requirement, that distinction is made explicit.
- Separate performance from compliance. Apparent operation, comfort, or efficiency does not in itself establish regulatory compliance.
- Prefer verifiable evidence. Where compliance is typically demonstrated via documentation, records, or test results, the evidential burden and common documentation gaps are described.
- Avoid inventing requirements. If an obligation cannot be supported by an appropriate source type, it is treated as practice commentary rather than a compliance requirement.
- Handle ambiguity explicitly. Where wording or application varies by context (e.g., extensions vs existing dwellings, notifiable work vs non-notifiable work, system type differences), the uncertainty is stated rather than “smoothed over”.
Content structure and labelling
Each entry is written to be scannable and defensible. Where relevant, entries:
- define terms and distinguish commonly conflated concepts
- state the compliance question being addressed
- identify typical misinterpretations seen in practice
- set out what would usually constitute reasonable evidence (without prescribing a method)
- flag boundary conditions and exclusions
Normative statements are limited to what can be supported by the source hierarchy above. Everything else is framed as risk commentary or practice observation.
Revision control, updates, and corrections
Compliance expectations can shift as guidance is updated, standards are revised, and enforcement priorities change. This site therefore:
- reviews pages on a scheduled basis and on material regulatory or standards change
- tracks meaningful revisions, including changes that alter interpretation or scope
- corrects errors promptly where identified, and records the correction where it affects reliance
Where a page may be impacted by a known or recent change, this is signposted with a “last reviewed” date and a short note describing what was checked.
Independence and conflicts of interest
This is a non-commercial reference website. It does not accept payment for product placement, lead generation, or endorsements. Where manufacturer documentation is used, it is used for factual declarations rather than as a source of compliance obligations.
If contributors have relevant professional affiliations, these are disclosed on the relevant page or contributor profile.
Limitations and professional reliance
This site supports professional judgement; it does not replace it. Users remain responsible for:
- confirming the latest applicable statutory and guidance position
- assessing project context, existing conditions, and interfaces with other building systems
- ensuring competence, certification, and legal duties are met for the specific work