User Notes (England and Wales)

 (Revised 2010 for end of green certificates)

1 Terms used in these notes 

1.1  Registered Organisation: an ANC member organisation registered for Part E measurement purposes through the ANC Registration Scheme for Measuring Sound Insulation. CMMS allocate an Organisation Number (eg 133), UserName (eg User999) and a Data Entry Password (eg 67BW43) which is to be used for every data entry exercise by Test Engineers at that Organisation.

1.2 Test Engineer, or Tester: an employee of an ANC Registered Organisation who is registered by ANC for conducting/supervising a Test.

1.3 Task and Task Reference Number: a Task is a measurement undertaking that would typically relate to a single contract with a client and would normally correspond to a job number in the Registered Organisation's files. It is described by the Site Name eg, Beaufort Buildings, Bromley and would encompass one or more Tests at that site. The Task Reference Number is a unique number allocated automatically by the software.

1.4 Test and Test Number: a Test is a single set of measurements with sufficient details to allow a determination of the appropiate Calculated Single Rating Value.  Each Test is assigned a Test Number by software in the order of entering the Test data.

1.5 Calculated Single Rating Value: this is calculated in software from data taken as above. These would be a number of decibels DnTw, DnTw + Ctr for airborne measurements and LnTw for impact measurements. 

2 Starting a Task

 The Test Engineeer accesses the Task data entry screen, using http//cmms.lesander.co.uk with the Data Entry Password and UserName as assigned by CMMS, and enters the following:

Site Name, This may have to be in the form  ‘land adjoining the Bull public house’ etc but should be in sufficient detail to allow identification of the location at any future date

Town/City

PostCode – at least the front part of it - where this exists,

The name of the builder/developer

Any purchase order number

During this process a Temporary Task Number is displayed on the data entry screen. Note is taken of the Task number finally assigned by software. This may be numerically greater than the temporary Task Number if, for example, somewhere else data is being entered resulting in their Submit button being pressed first.

In the event of a lengthy breakdown in service a switch will be made to a reserve server and Test Engineers informed.

3 Recording a Test

After conducting a Test measurement in accordance with ANC instructions, the Test Engineeer accesses the Test data entry screen, using his or her Organisation’s Data Entry Password and UserName, and enters the following:

Date of Test

Name of Test Engineer who conducted/supervised the Test.

Whether it is a Floor or Wall Test

Whether it is an Airborne or Impact Test.

A statement of the Source and Receiving spaces in sufficient detail to allow their future identification.

The DnT values rounded appropriately to 1dp in 1/3 octaves. These should cover the ranges of band centre frequencies 100 Hz – 3150 Hz or alternatively 80 Hz – 5000Hz.

The Part E type. Alternatively show this as ‘other’ in which case a comment on the construction type is mandatory.

Whether it is a Repeat Test and, if so, the original Test Number .

Whether it is an Ecohomes Test, a CSH Test or neither

Whether the project is Houses and Flats or Rooms For Residential Purposes.

Whether the project is New Build or Conversion.

During this process a Temporary Test Number is displayed on the data entry screen.

Checking the Compute button produces the appropriate Calculated Single Rating Value.

Checking the Submit button sends the data to the results data base on the main server.

A Confirmatory E-mail is sent to the listed email address of the Registered Test Engineer for perusal. If this address is not convenient or if the emails should be made available to all Testers at that Organisation, the Test Engineer may request a permanent change to an alternative, perhaps of the ‘info@’ or ‘mail@’ variety.

Note is made of the final displayed Test Number which could be different from the temporary value if another person in the Organisation is currently submitting data for the same Task. Note is made of the computed Single Rating Value for future reference. 

4 Assistance with data entry

A procedure is available such that after a one-off piece of preparatory work, data may be entered using ‘Copy and Paste’. This results in considerable labour saving and most Registered Organisations currently work in this way. Contact CMMS for a copy of the instructions.

5 Using the ADvANCE Procedure for displaying results

As from 1 Jan 2010 green printed certificates that had been produced in 2 or 3 copies for the Test Engineer to distribute, were discontinued in favour of an electronic replacement.

In this approach each Task is assigned an ADvANCE Password consisting of 6 characters. For Tasks initiated after 1 June 2009, this Password can be read from any of the Test confirmatory emails. In the event of the confirmatory emails being held up, it can be read by checking the “Edit Submitted Data” button on the data entry screen.

For Tasks opened before 1 June 2009, at the end of each working day, CMMS search for examples where an ADvANCE Password had not been previously allocated, create one retrospectively and email it to the Test Engineer.

6 Inspecting summary data

To inspect summary data for all the Tests for a particular Task, Test Engineers open www.theanc.co.uk and navigate to the ADvANCE screen where the Task Number and the ADvANCE Password are requested. An analysis of Tests so far for that Task are presented in a form that can be printed.

The Test Engineer notifies the Client of the ADvANCE Password for the Task on the proforma Cover Sheet to the Report, which has already been provided by ANC.

7 Data handling errors

The Test Engineer can identify data entry errors in any of three ways

(i) by inspecting the confirmatory email for the Test (this includes individual DnT values), or,

(ii) by using the Edit Submitted Data button on the main data entry screen (this does show individual DnT values), or,

(iii) by inspecting the ADvANCE screen (which only shows limited data).

Errors may be reported using the Reply button to the confirmatory email or the Edit Submitted Data button and CMMS will arrange for corrections to the data bases.

Special cases such as requests for deletion of one or more Tests or replacement of an entire DnT data set can be done this way. Common changes to Tests of a single Task can best be handled in a single request by (ii) above.

Repeat copies of previous green certificates can be requested by email to CMMS

CMMS

4 May 2010