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The article presents a message from Rebecca T. Ellis, president of Questions & Solutions Engineering Inc. and outgoing contributor to the magazine's Commissioning column. She looks back at how building systems commissioning evolved in the 1990s and how it influenced building system performance and sustainable operation. She cites how the industry has reached maturity along with the need for leaders to focus on standards, certification and expansion of commissioning.

The author considers owner's project requirements (OPR) as the number one on the list of Top 10 Elements of Commissioning. He believes that the more people involved and the more complex the project, the more important it is to define the goals before starting. He also discusses the definition of commissioning, purpose of OPRs, and reason that the OPR is the author's number one element of commissioning.

The article discusses the importance of clarifying control system technical requirements early in the design phase to ensure effective control system integration in buildings, including coordination between the controls contractor and equipment manufacturer representatives. This process should also address integration between building automation systems and not heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems.

The article informs about Elements of Commissioning on proper planning early in the construction phase, commissioning activities do not need to significantly impact the critical path of construction. Topics include design and construction team to forget to include the commissioning professional in important submittal reviews; and how to involve the commissioning professional in equipment submittal reviews for early procurement packages.

The author points out why third-party commissioning should be introduced early to a design and construction project. Topics covered include the need to develop the owner's project requirements (OPR) document early, why it is best to introduce third-party commissioning in the pre-design phase of a project and the importance of having a customized commissioning specification.

The article informs about the importance of the owner's operation and maintenance (O&M) management team making participation in the commissioning process and new equipment and systems training a priority for their teams. Topics include emphasize the importance of the owner's project management team's support of the commissioning process; and number of facility owners who are desperate for help with their building construction projects hiring a commissioning professional.

The article provides information on the top ten elements of commissioning. Topics discussed include the primary reasons building owners find value in the commissioning process, elements associated with long-term sustainable operation, and the best way to get to know the new systems. Also mentioned is the need of the commissioning professional to prepare a functional performance test schedule to share with the operation and maintenance (O&M) team during the acceptance phase.

The article discusses the that No. 7th element of commissioning is systems documentation. Topics include that documentation is critical, because each building's systems are unique and designed by different engineers for different purposes in different climates in different architectural enclosures in different code jurisdictions.

The article focuses on Preparing for Video Walkthroughs and Testing. Topics discussed include this is when, under normal circumstances, a building owner may have an outside commissioning professional perform a walkthrough; and travel restrictions, corporate policy, or budget constraints limit the ability of the commissioning professional to physically make a site visit, there are some things to address before considering a virtual site visit.

The article focuses on the Virtual Retro-Commissioning. Topics discussed include the quickest and easiest, and almost always applicable, analyses are base versus seasonal usage and load factor. Base versus seasonal usage; and this was for a small home in a four-season climate zone. In this case, there are clearly two seasonal "bumps" in the graph profile.

The article focuses on Buy-in and trust of the building operators is absolutely critical for virtual retrocommissioning to work. Topics discussed include the commissioning professional needs to go to the people who know the system best to finetune, add to, and enhance his/her understanding of the building systems; and this will typically be the full-time operations staff, if there is one, or out-sourced service contractors.

The article reports that the outline how training can be delivered in a meaningful and efficient way under the guidance of commissioning professionals. Topics include people responsible for maintaining operation of the system performance and efficiency will likely start to degrade immediately upon turnover; and standard industry training specification templates are too generic to be included without customization and clarification regarding how training needs to be applied to the project.

The article emphasizes the value of interpersonal skills in commissioning and points out that commissioning professional should be firm but fair with project teams when representing owners' interests. Topics covered include the collaborative team approach to facilitating commissioning, how commissioning professionals can represent owners' interests and how the commissioning professional can develop a noncompetitive team spirit.

The article explores starting this month and going through November 2022, I will count down my Top 10 Elements of Commissioning. These are, in my opinion, the most important things for a successful commissioning project. My definition of "success" is twofold: First, the building systems function properly when they're handed over from the project team to the operations team, and, second, the operations team is equipped with the understanding, documentation, and training.

The article offers information on the works of the punchlist process for static installation and documentation items but never includes dynamic or operational issues at the time of substantial completion. It mentions that commissioning action list as essentially a punchlist for invisible operational issues.

The article focuses on commissioning domestic hot water (DHW) systems is important from design through startup and balancing. Topics include the state of disregard could be because a poorly performing DHW system is not a critical issue in many buildings, and the DHW primarily exists for employee, student, or visitor hand-washing, few people are going to make a big stink about cold or tepid water coming out of restroom or breakroom faucets.

The article presents the process commissioning is not commissioning, according to industry leaders who have worked hard for the past three decades to define and standardize a strong and meaningful process. Topics include the technical commissioning approach ensures that the commissioning authority is the final expert that actually performs testing on all building systems, and the process commissioning manages project quality by observing and reviewing the inspection and testing processes.

The article offers information on the need of loss of power response (LOPR) test which is necessary to verify that the generator power actually gets to every load it is intended to serve and that those loads operate as expected during and after the transfer to generator power. It discusses that the main reason LOPR is one of the last commissioning tests is because it is most meaningful if the equipment/systems are installed and started up, to the greatest extent practical, prior to the test.

The article focuses on the benefit to capital project budgets, standard sequences of operation could be the key to streamlining an ongoing commissioning program. Topics discussed include the standard control sequences documentation should include system schematic flow diagrams and points lists in addition to the written sequences of operation; and logic flow charts can also be helpful for communicating operational intent for complex strategies.

In this article author talks about installment about virtual (remote) retro-commissioning. Topics include considered that the focus of retro-commissioning is energy savings or systems performance improvement, no benefits are realized until the owner acts on the findings; and reports that matrix can be a simple spreadsheet shared via email with the owner or an online tracking tool that anyone on the retro-commissioning team can access and update.

Looks into the significance of humidification and dehumidification systems for facility and buildings. Risk in noncommissioning these systems; Benefits experienced on buildings installed with humidity control systems; Advantages brought by the technology.

The article offers information on remotely accessing a e building automation system's (BAS) user interface to extract information regarding sequences of operation and a system's performance over time. It discusses about simple air-handling unit (AHU) which is a chilled water, cooling-only system with full air-side economizer capability and is a single-zone unit serving a commercial tenant space in a large multi use complex.

The article offers an overview of the procedures that may apply when retro-commissioning a building system. Topics discussed include few remote test procedures that may apply to the building systems being retro commissioned such as an over-pressurized or under-pressurized building is a red ag for HVAC system problems, opening the access door to view each outside air damper and send a photo of their "found" positions.

The article offers information several steps for applying the Virtual Retro-Commissioning of any facility's Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems which includes Original Construction and Major Renovation Drawings, Control System Manuals, and Building Automation System Screenshots.

Answers questions about heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration commissioning. Exact definition of commissioning; Why commissioning is needed; When and how commissioning is performed; How does commissioning work; Cost and benefits of commissioning.

The article offers information on the virtual retro-commissioning to help building operators meet their systems' performance and efficiency goals. It discusses that an experienced retro-commissioning professional can draw on a variety of remote activities to help identify potential building systems performance or efficiency issues which include phone/video interviews with building operators, documentation review, historical energy consumption review, and remote BAS monitoring and testing.

The article focuses on building operators will be challenged to run their HVAC systems in the most energy-efficient manner while supporting evolving space usage decisions. Topics include building owners should have a current facilities requirements (CFR) document explaining the operating intentions for all building systems, and the CFR should be clear on which strategies were intended to be permanent and which were intended to be temporary.

The article informs that carefully evaluate every strategy against its appropriateness for each unique building and Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. Topics include HVAC system is functioning as originally intended is the least a building owner/operator can do for any occupied building during the COVID-19 pandemic; and temperature and ventilation sensors are calibrated and communicating with their controllers.

The article discusses a risk register has a project management tool for identifying, characterizing, addressing, and tracking multiple types of risks associated with a project. Topics include risk registers have started for the planning stages of a project and have carried for design, construction, and project closeout; and the risk register, used by the senior project management team, raised the concern to a level high enough to result in the desired actions.

The article discusses the commissioning professional reviews which submittals related to the commissioned equipment and systems in parallel with the design team and then submits comments to them. It mentions that the design team chooses to include, some variation of the commissioning professional's comments in the formal stamped submittals the design team returns to the contractors.

The article offers information on the introduction of the commissioning professional to the project team. Topics include the role of commissioning professional scope of the designers' role in the commissioning process; problems that extend the schedule and increase cost at the end of construction; and also mentions that commissioning professional generates comments regarding the level of completeness when the design team's intention failed to meet the commissioning professional's expectations.

The article focuses on regardless of the format, the design team must comprehensively respond to each design review concern that arises. Topics inlcude the owner's project requirements (OPR) document for a project, the one of the first activities for a commissioning professional is conducting third-party reviews of the design team's work, and the commissioning professionals document their comments in a format has intended to be easy and practical for the design team to manage.

In this article the author talks about the master equipment list (MEL) is one of the highest value deliverables a commissioning professional can offer. Topics include easiest-to-create commissioning process deliverables is also one of the most valuable to the building owner/operator; contracting outsourced preventive maintenance services, and replacing equipment and/ or parts procurement; and systems are not necessarily defined by industry standards, so commissioning professionals.

The article offers information on similarity between music and HVAC system. Topics discussed include need for tuning of instruments by musicians, similar to an HVAC system needing all of its sensors calibrated; need for maintenance, operation, and optimization (MO&O) for effective operations and maintenance (O&M); need for O&M staff training to sustain optimal system performance.

The article focuses on the benefit of new construction commission. Topic include need to consider when deciding between self-commissioning his or her projects and outsourcing the commissioning process management to an outside consultant; and the owner needs at least one person on the commissioning team who is outgoing, friendly but firm, and endlessly persistent in encouraging the project team to address its assigned commissioning action items in a timely manner.

The article offers information on theme of testing, adjusting, and balancing (TAB) for Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. Topics include providing unambiguous air and water flow requirements that need to be balanced and documented by the TAB contractor upon completion of each phase; and broken damper linkages, seized up control valves, failed check valves, closed smoke dampers, missing fan belts.

The article offers information on how the air and water testing, adjusting, and balancing (TAB) contractor is brought into a typical construction project; and mentions TAB contractor needs to be familiar enough with all of these to be able to ask questions regarding key elements that are missing and/or need further clarification in order for the TAB contractor to efficiently perform the balancing work correctly the first time.

The article focuses on the value of testing, adjusting, and balancing (TAB) coordination for enhancing the efficiency and success of Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) commissioning. It mentions the TAB contractor is scheduled to balance the systems at the end of construction; and also mentions the TAB contractor will be expected to show up to perform the balancing.

The article explores the reasons for which design engineers are not being given the appropriate time or compensation to fully engineer a project. Topics discussed include Reconciling the specified equipment and controls with products and systems actually available from vendors; encouraging determination of operational set points; and finalizing individual equipment and system components, sequences of operation, and user interfaces.

The article focuses on as-built document review, the most valuable deliverables from a design and construction project. It mentions As-built document review included in the commissioning professional's scope of services, presumably as a means of filling gap in the normal project delivery process and also highlights the documentation of as-built conditions as to maintain paper copies of drawings at the project site.

TREND ANALYSIS FOR EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY - PART 3. [Extracted from the article]

The article offers information on how trend analysis can uncover wasted energy that no one even suspected. It mentions converting to variable air volume operation would be an energy conservation opportunity for this system, but that's evident without much thought or analysis; and also mentions when the controls contractor was summoned back to the building two years after it was constructed.

The article discusses that capturing the right data can prove that an organization's systems are on the right track, and are working properly. Topics discussed include owners' project requirements, that include effectiveness as well as efficiency criteria; the importance of trend analysis, either from a direct digital control system or from portable data loggers; and the role of temperature setting in a system.

The article offers information on renovations in the facility which is required due to new technologies, new services, changing patient demographics, growing populations, and/or simply aging infrastructure. Topics discussed include that a commissioning professional is assigned to a building and its systems who should consider that building his or her own and all renovation/upgrade projects should be taken seriously and very personally.

The article offers information about the two new construction commissioning projects with similar challenges and as-yet unwritten endings. The first project is one in which the commissioning professional was engaged before the schematic design phase, and the project is currently early in construction. The design engineers did not develop a detailed set of control sequences during the design phase.

The article discusses the air handler with dual temperature set points and variable air volume systems temperature set points. It states that an individual variable air volume system zone had its own setup and setback and temperature set points and the parameters displayed on the graphic are unoccupied temperature offsets. The author suggests that too much temperature control could interfere with energy efficiency of the air handling unit and variable air volume system.

The article offers information on the building operator opportunities to adjust set points via the central BAS graphics. Topics discusses include a single-zone AHU graphic has a dual space temperature set point, one for cooling and one for heating; mentions there are significant opportunities for wasted energy due to operator error or misunderstanding; and also mentions BAS graphic can still display the heating set point and cooling set point values.

The article focuses on design review readiness and full-service commissioning involves at least one design review prior to bidding and construction. Topics discussed include industry expectations at the schematic design (SD), design development (DD), and construction documents (CD) phases, piping or ductwork plans, lighting layouts, electrical one-line diagrams and professional documenting incompleteness or inappropriate designs.

The article focuses on systems manuals for the regurgitation of building automation system (BAS) and electric controls, such as thermostats for furnaces, fan-coil units, or heat pumps. Topics discussed include dual-temperature systems utilize a single set of pumps for both summer and winter operation for energy conservation, variable-speed chilled water system needs a mechanism to ensure the flow through the chiller and domestic hot water (DHW) system with boilers or heat exchangers.

The article discusses the freezing temperature of the heating, ventilation and air condition (HVAC). Topics mention including information regarding the commissioned systems, examples of winterization processes intended by the design and construction team and the resultant of the low glycol concentration.