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.

As demonstrated with manual winterization requirements last month (Winterization and Commissioning, January 2019), systems manuals should include more than a regurgitation of the BAS as-built documents. Not everything in a project is necessarily controlled by the BAS, and, believe it or not, some buildings are still constructed with no central BAS at all.

The industry standard commissioning process includes development of a systems manual to supplement the equipment O&M manuals provided by equipment manufacturers. The systems manual is intended to document at least the following information about each commissioned system:

With the ever-changing field of technology comes improvements in both energy and ease of use for many systems across the industry.

Documentation is a constant throughout the commissioning process, theoretically starting with the owner’s project requirements and ending with the commissioning report.

For many of us involved day to day with the design, installation, and operation of BAS, it often seems like there has been little in terms of new products and innovation.

Last month, this column presented monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) as a subset of ongoing commissioning of buildings that have previously been commissioned or retro-commissioned.

While monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) is a relatively new term in the mainstream commissioning dictionary, its practice has been part of some commissioning programs for more than 10 years.

As the old guard retires, it’s time to reinforce the crucial benefits of commissioning.

Interpreting common commissioning classifications.