Unfortunately, in the world of building design, feedback is often lacking. Most architects and engineers work on new buildings, and once commissioning is done, there’s little opportunity (or budget) to review the impact of design choices, positive or negative. Without a feedback loop from commissioning...
We received a call from a client seeking “commissioning.” Their project was already in construction, and they thought commissioning meant “functional testing.” We explained why functional testing without design review is a waste of money. During testing, we might be able to find issues, but by...
We often speak of new construction commissioning as a quality assurance process for new buildings, beginning from conception and design and continuing through construction and into initial occupancy. Some see it merely as a necessity for obtaining LEED points and complying with energy code. Others...
As an energy efficiency consultant, my primary job is to recommend energy projects to my clients. More often than not, they base their decision to implement the project on its cost-effectiveness. For energy retrofit projects, establishing payback is fairly easy – the project costs $X,...
In heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, airflow reported at the variable air volume (VAV) box is actually a measure of total pressure. It gets converted into an airflow by a multiplier that is generated during testing, adjusting and balancing (TAB). This multiplier is...
We’ve recently seen an uptick in city and county building inspectors asking for mechanical acceptance forms prior to granting an occupancy permit. This trend demonstrates that perhaps code enforcement is catching up to code. As of the 2013 California energy code, effective July 1, 2014, mechanical...
SkySpark collects and stores data from any number of sources and provides an open analytics platform that can be programmed to automatically make sense of the data and provide insights on a building or a portfolio of buildings. This open platform can be customized to a...
On January 1st of 2020, new changes go into effect for Title-24, California’s energy efficiency standard for commercial buildings. Neil Bulger has a nice summary of changes to HVAC, and a bit on lighting. But what’s happening with refrigeration in supermarkets? There are two important changes...
I first encountered condensing boiler woes when conducting an energy audit for a winery which had retrofitted its conventional boilers to condensing boilers. Operating with a supply water temperature of 180°F and a return water temperature of 140°F, the boilers never operated in condensing mode...
Trust, but verify. Seems reasonable, but sometimes in commissioning I think ‘always verify’ is a better phrase. Investigation is key in retro-commissioning We were completing a retro-commissioning project on community college building in Southern California and noticed something off in the trend data. The economizer on two...