ASHRAE UPDATE

Focused on commissioning process, will help ensure fully functional facility

ASHRAE has announced publishing ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 202, Commissioning Process for Buildings and Systems, which identifies the minimum acceptable commissioning process for buildings and systems as described in ASHRAE’s Guideline 0-2005, The Commissioning Process. The commissioning process as detailed in Standard 202 applies to all construction projects and systems and is an industry consensus document, ASHRAE has added.

According to ASHRAE, the commissioning process assumes that owners, programmers, designers, contractors and operations and maintenance entities are fully accountable for the quality of their work, and that the process begins at project inception and continues for the life of a facility.

The standard defines the commissioning process through 13 functional steps, each of which contains deliverables, said ASHRAE, and has listed them as follows:

• Initiate the Commissioning Process, including defining roles and responsibilities
• Define the project requirements which results in the  Owner’s Project Requirements (OPR) document
• Develop commissioning plan – produces a written Commissioning Process Plan
• Plan design approach to Owners Project Requirements – defines the basis of design
• Set contractor commissioning requirement, which are included in the commissioning specifications
• Design review by the commissioning authority provides feedback and a design review report
• Submittals review verifies compliance with the OPR in a submittal review report
• Observation  & Testing verifies system performance with results documented in construction checklists and reports
• Issues resolution coordination is done with an issues and resolution log
• Systems manual assembly results in a systems manual for building operation
• Conduct training for building operations with training plans and records
• Post occupancy operation commissioning provides an end of warranty commissioning report
• Assembly of a commissioning report captures all the project commissioning documentation

“Given the integration and interdependency of facility systems, a performance deficiency in one system can result in less than optimal performance by other systems,” Gerald Kettler, PE, Chair of the committee that wrote the standard, said. “Implementing the Commissioning Process is intended to reduce the project capital cost through the warranty period and also reduce the life-cycle cost of the facility. Using this integrated process results in a fully functional, fine-tuned facility, with complete documentation of its systems and assemblies and trained operations and maintenance personnel.”

According to ASHRAE, the cost of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 202-2013, Commissioning Process for Buildings and Systems, is $72 ($61, ASHRAE members).