NEW BUILDING COMMISSIONING SERVICES

New Building Cx begins in the pre-construction planning phase and continues through the construction, acceptance, and warranty period.

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Design Phase

The owner’s project requirements (OPR) are clearly documented to ensure they are met throughout the project delivery process.  Once concept and design drawings are built, the Commissioning Agent reviews the documents to ensure that the OPR and design intent is being met.  Some things looked for during this process is completeness, the ability to maintain systems, energy efficiency, etc.  

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Construction Phase

The construction phase of Commissioning includes site visits, mechanical inspections, start-up verification, point-to-point sensor and actuator verification, test and balance verification, and functional performance testing.  These steps are critical to the success of the operation of the building.  If problems are identified during these steps, they can be quickly remedied and allow for a smoother transition into the Acceptance/Occupancy Phase of the project.  Functional testing is not limited to individual system operation but how the building as a whole is operating.  

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Acceptance/Occupancy Phase

During this phase, the contractors have corrected deficiencies found during the construction process and training can occur.  Operator training allows the owner to identify the operation of the building and the equipment within as well as learn about maintenance and the building automation system.  The Commissioning Report is a deliverable from the Commissioning process that encapsulates all of the tasks completed during the commissioning process as well as all deficiencies found and remedied at the time of the report.  The report is a key tool in future commissioning or building operational questions.  

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Warranty Phase/Ongoing Commissioning Phase

During the warranty phase, an approximate 10 month warranty systems check is completed to verify that the systems are still operating per the design intent and any changes that need to be corrected can be completed before the expiration of the 1 year warranty period.  A seasonal verification may also be performed to verify operation of the systems during off season conditions.

EXISTING BUILDING AND RETRO-COMMISSIONING SERVICES

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Existing Building and Retro-Commissioning entails the same Cx principles relative to new buildings but for a structure already in operation. The owner’s requirements are re-evaluated to identify required operational changes.

Retro-Commissioning can improve the efficiency of an existing building's equipment and system.  The typical Retro-Commissioning process includes:

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Planning and Meeting with the Owner

Meeting with the Owner helps identify the goals to come from the Retro-Commissioning process.  It allows the Owner and the Commissioning Agent to help identify a scope of work and objectives of the process.  

Investigation,Functional Testing, and Observation

Functional testing can determine whether building systems operation has deteriorated over time, may not have been working correctly after construction, or the occupancy of the building may have changed.  

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Some examples of common items found are:

• Simultaneous heating and cooling

• Physical damage to equipment due to age or poor maintenance

• Sensors and actuators that are not properly calibrated

• Air and water balance that is not optimized for the building

• Control sequences and schedules that are not properly controlling or inadequate for the building operation

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Developing/Implementation of Facility Improvement Measures (FIMs)

Deficiencies that are identified are documented and presented to the Owner.  Opportunities for efficiencies in current operation may be corrected at the discretion of the Owner some with little or no cost to the Owner.  Other improvements may involve significantly more cost and will be at the discretion of the owner for correction.  A final Retro-Commissioning report is delivered to the owner with the deficiencies and FIMs identified.

Ongoing Commissioning

Like New Construction Commissioning, ongoing Commissioning can be an effective tool at continued building operation efficiency and comfort.  The same measures are performed as previously described.  

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