This month’s Facility File will focus on the B2B March test for the commercial building energy retrofit HVAC application. The project delivery method is design-build with a guaranteed turnkey cost, so the D-B firm will assign a project manager with an energy management background to the project, along with an in-house HVAC and BAS engineering, technicians, and estimator staff to be involved in the design and cost estimate in the initial phase. The scope of work will be a basis of design meeting the owner’s HVAC and electrical system requirements, utility company’s requirements, and the O&M requirements.
It would be very beneficial for the building owner and her owner representative to read ASHRAE Handbook 2015 — Applications and read chapters 3 (commercial and public buildings), chapter 41 (building energy monitoring), chapter 42 (supervisorycontrol strategies and optimization), chapter 47 (design and application of controls), chapter 59 (HVAC security) , and chapter61 (codes and standards) to be knowledgeable of ASHRAE’s guidelines when preparing to authorize a design-build (D-B) firmto upgrade the buildings BAS.
This information, combined with the owner’s own knowledge of outsourcing the O&M for a commercial office building, will assist the D-B team in understanding the intricacies of owning, operating, and managing this type of HVAC application. It is also a requirement that the D-B team coordinate the basis of design document with the building owner’s security manager to contribute to a safer building energy management design.
In the initial D-B phase of the project, the owner representative will begin the process of outsourcing the building’s O&M by soliciting a request for proposal and receipt of bids that will be reviewed by owner, owner representative, and the D-B firm’s project manager.
The owner will require the D-B firm to provide a one-year, full O&M of the new BAS installation including the monitoring, trending, and reporting on BAS performance to document project success, as well as to provide the necessary energy reporting submission to the utility company project representative. The D-B off-site operation shall be the parallel tracking of daily BAS performance, along with on-site BAS equipment/system calibration while providing quarterly training to the O&M staff in the first year.
In the startup and pre-commissioning phases, the outsourced O&M staff will begin their on-site maintenance management contract and will be proactive in following along with the D-B’s BAS technicians to receive BAS equipment, system, and computer training using the O&M manuals and contract documents (that will eventually become the as-built drawings).
