Building Commissioning
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Building Commissioning is the process of ensuring, in new construction, that all the subsystems for HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Fire/Life safety, and Building Security are operating as intended by the building owner and as designed by the building architects and engineers. Building commissioning is a quality assurance process for the complexity of modern construction projects. Normally the commissioning firm is involved from project initiation to project completion. While the service methodology can vary from firm to firm and project to project, the basic formula for successful building commissioning involves a synergy of pre-construction review of design documents for compliance with the Owner's Performance Requirements (OPR), periodic site observations during the construction phase, and systems performance testing as the project nears completion. While the practice of building commissioning is still fairly new in the construction industry, it has quickly become common practice as savvy building owners and developers have seen substantial returns on their investment. The ultimate goal of the commissioning provider is to help deliver for the owner a project that is on schedule and under budget, and a building with fully operational and optimized systems on day one.
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[edit] System Degradation
Just as a piano goes "Out of Tune", so do the systems that control a building. It is estimated by Texas A&M researchers that as much as 20%[1] of the energy used in an average commercial building is waste associated with poorly commissioned systems.
Buildings systems underperform for several reasons:
- They were never properly configured
- The design did not account for all sources of building efficiency
- The building is not properly maintained
- The use of the Building has changed over time
[edit] Real Time Building Management
With as much as 20% of buildings' energy being wasted, building owners are looking for solutions to understand on a real time basis when a building is underperforming.
[edit] See also
- Load management for balancing the supply of electricity on a distribution network.
