In May’s column, I detailed the benefits to the owner of defining and enforcing a standard VAV terminal unit control sequence. These benefits included the ability to automate performance monitoring through the central BAS. The May column also included an example list of potential operating conditions that would result in alarms.
Programming the BAS to generate maintenance alarms when certain conditions exist at any VAV box may relieve the owner of the burden of periodically recommissioning hundreds of terminal units on a regular basis. More likely, the owner does not have the labor resources or budget to implement a regular terminal unit recommissioning program, and recommissioning only occurs when trouble calls are received from occupants. In worst-case scenarios, recommissioning does not even happen then because the maintenance responders are too busy to do anything but apply band aid solutions. Such quick and dirty solutions can mask the root cause, waste energy, and potentially upset the system as a whole.