Energy Matters | Issue 9 | 2022
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MEMBER’S CORNER www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk
Working in the Air Conditioning industry
16 years ago Alasdair Muir was working in the built environment department for a local authority before a series of takeovers and shakeups led to him starting his own successful building surveying company, A Muir Surveying. One of the services he provides is Air Conditioning (TM44 assessments) so we caught up with Alasdair to find out more about this line of work.
Why did you become an Air Conditioning Inspector? Around 2006 I was working in the built environment department for a local authority, which was then taken out of the council and given to a semi-private company. They offered a few team members training and I put my hand up for various energy saving courses - any training they could find! And that included air conditioning. I was very lucky to have benefited from that.
Did you find having a background as an energy assessor helped? It’s definitely helpful coming from a commercial EPC background because you’ll have a bit of
knowledge about Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. What I would say is that EPCs and DECs almost gave me a bit of a false sense of security. I definitely found the air conditioning exam, set by ABBE (but I think with input from CIBSE), much harder than the former two; it was more technical - a lot of which you don’t necessarily need to know on site - but I suppose it ensures you know your stuff and you feel very assured when you’re in the field.
What’s your favourite part of the job? I like going out to different sites. My background is building surveying so I like being out and
