Commissioning of energy-efficiency measures: Costs and benefits for 16 buildings

Building systems and energy-efficiency measures (EEMs) often don`t perform as well in practice as expected at the design stage. This fact has become clear to many organizations concerned with ensuring building performance. What to do about these problems is less clear. Several electric utilities around the U.S. have begun to take action to address the start-up, control, and operational problems that are found in nearly every building. One of the most beneficial periods to intervene in the building life cycle is during the start-up phase of a now building. Building commissioning during start up is such an intervention. Commissioning can be defined as: a set of procedures, responsibilities, and methods to advance a system from static installation to full working order in accordance with design intent. In broad terms, commissioning can extend from design reviews through operations and maintenance planning and training. With such a broad scope aimed at the entire building life cycle, commissioning is often likened to {open_quotes}Total Quality Management{close_quotes} Yet the heart of commissioning are the procedures developed and executed to ensure that all building systems function as intended. The incorporation of energy-efficiency criteria into building commissioning is a new development.