This month’s Facility File will focus on the B2B December test for the energy retrofit of a commercial office building hot water heating system conversion from a utility company steam system to a new, high-efficiency condensing boiler system. This energy retrofit project system will receive an energy retrofit performance contract to redesign, build, and take over operation and maintenance of the heating system based on a performance contract lease agreement to span the agreed upon boiler’s useful life cycle of 20 years. The scope of this building program is to remove the existing underground high-pressure steam supply and condensate return system from a local utility company piped distribution system from below the city street into the building.
For this Facility File, the project delivery method is based on the building owner agreeing to this design-build-operate-maintain performance contractor (PC) and his or her energy retrofit performance contract. This PC team shall include its own in-house commissioning and testing, adjusting, and balancing engineers (CxTAB). The PC firm shall subcontract out the energy and retrofit design professionals, subcontract the HVAC contractor, and place the boiler room O&M operators on-site along with the remote energy monitoring/management and planned maintenance work order system.