Continuing with the theme from last month, this column presents another real-life example of how trend analysis, if done thoughtfully, can uncover wasted energy that no one even suspected.

Whether it’s new construction commissioning or existing building retro-commissioning, “commissioning” is about entire systems and their performance.

There are some building types and/or organizations that are nearly always undergoing some sort of facility upgrade, modification, and/or expansion to accommodate evolving needs.

Engineering departments in today’s health care environment are tasked with an ever-growing list of responsibilities, such as emergency readiness, PMs, reactive maintenance, ensuring regulatory compliance, managing infection control, maintaining life cycle budgets, managing utility spend, and the list goes on.

This is a story about two new construction commissioning projects with similar challenges and as-yet unwritten endings. 

Last month’s column introduced the concept of giving “too much control” to the building operators through the BAS graphic.

Imagine a world where all HVAC equipment, (i.e chillers, variable frequency drives etc.), all BAS sensors, various components of the electrical systems (i.e electrical panels, meters, lighting fixtures etc.), and various components of all other infrastructure systems are connected to a shared, non-proprietary network that integrates the functionality of each system.

The idea for this month’s topic was hatched during a retro-commissioning project, but it offers lessons to be applied to new construction commissioning.

Much has been written about systems’ readiness for functional performance testing at the end of construction, and pre-functional checklists have become common elements of the commissioning process.