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

Overby-Sheppard Elementary in Richmond, Virginia, needed more than an HVAC upgrade, but with tight budgets and minimal state funding, it didn’t seem likely. The 40-year-old building needed a full overhaul to provide students with a healthier, distraction-free environment.

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.

BOSTON — Key energy issues, such as energy management, efficiency, automation, and more, took center stage as the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) presented its AEE East Energy Conference & Expo, March 20-21 in Boston.

Today’s data centers handle an increasing volume of global digital communication traffic compared to their predecessors of yesteryear. The computers and digital devices that provide streaming video, Internet of Things (IoT) data, business communications, etc. are driving the growth of new data centers to handle this traffic.

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.

Boilers are closed pressure vessels that are used to heat fluids -- either water or steam. They range in size, fluid to be heated, temperature of fluid, and design configurations. This paper is the first in a series to explain total system efficiency with a focus on condensing hot water boilers used for space heating, process applications, and/ or domestic hot water heating.

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:

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