Commissioning and Operations
Commissioning process
Understand the commissioning (Cx) process: owner's project requirements (OPR), basis of design (BOD), Cx plan, pre-functional checks, functional performance testing (FPT), issues log, and final Cx report. Recognize retro-commissioning (RCx) for existing buildings and ongoing commissioning (OCx) for continuous monitoring. Know roles: Cx authority (CxA), owner, contractor, design team; independence of the CxA matters.
Operations and measurement
Concepts: energy management information systems (EMIS), fault detection and diagnostics (FDD), trend logging, sequence of operations, and M&V per IPMVP options (A–D). Understand baseline adjustment and persistence of savings. Know that most savings in RCx come from controls and scheduling, not equipment replacement.
Traps
- Confusing commissioning (new building) with retro-commissioning (existing).
- Assuming the CxA is the designer or contractor - independence is key.
- Skipping seasonal testing (heating and cooling modes).
- Claiming savings without baseline adjustment for weather/occupancy.
- Treating OCx as a one-time event rather than continuous monitoring.
Worked example
A building's fan runs 24/7 despite 10-hour occupancy. If a 20 hp fan draws ~15 kW and runs 8,760 h/yr, annual energy ≈ 131,400 kWh. Cutting to 10 h/day, 5 days/week (~2,600 h) reduces to ~39,000 kWh - a ~70% fan-energy savings from a schedule fix alone. This is the classic RCx finding: controls and schedules yield large, low-cost savings.