Course: GFM 101 Fundamentals of Green Facilities Management

Reading

(2/2)
Whether It Be Commissioning, Re-commissioning, Retro-commissioning, or Continuous Commissioning… Fine-tuning Pays!

Building Commissioning is a rapidly growing A-E-C Project Management practice that is being embraced by public and private organizations because of its benefits in improved project delivery results.

This section of WBDG organizes commissioning information, guidance, and resources under three broad principles, including Determine Project Performance Requirements, Plan the Commissioning Process, and Document Compliance and Acceptance. It is important to note that all three principles are applied over the life-span of a capital design and construction project, and that it takes a multi-disciplined effort involving owners, design professionals, construction managers, and commissioning providers to achieve optimal results from the commissioning process.

It is important to start the commissioning process early and to bring the commissioning agent (CxA) on board during or before schematic design. This early involvement is critical for the timely and useful development of the Owner's Project Requirements (OPR), the subsequent design team Basis of Design (BOD) and the beginning of the Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Systems Manual. If these tasks are left until later in the process and "reverse engineered" to match the design, their usefulness as catalysts for dialog and quality tracking tools is lost.

Appointing the CxA immediately after the architects and engineers allows the CxA to become familiar with existing programming documents and proceed immediately to the OPR workshop and the development of the MEP and other criterion that match the project needs. When the Systems Manual is started at this early stage, the inclusion of O&M requirements is ensured. The inclusion of O&M in the early stage project programming is the key to the long- term persistence of the energy efficiency and equipment longevity strategies built into the design.

This section provides an overview of commissioning drivers, benefits, goals, and principles and general commissioning guides, standards, and resources

The commissioning process can be applied in a variety of approaches focusing on building systems/assemblies and can be customized to suit project needs. However, regardless of commissioning approach and system focus, it always requires clear definition of performance expectations, rigor in planning and execution, and thorough project testing, operational training, and documentation.

Readings:

Click here to read about Building Commissioning from National Institute of Building Sciences.
Click here to read about Determine Project Performance Requirements from National Institute of Building Sciences.
Click here to read about Document Compliance and Acceptance from National Institute of Building Sciences.
Click here to read about Plan the Commissioning Process from National Institute of Building Sciences.
Click here to read on the Sustainable Facilities Tool from the U.S. General Services Administration.