Commissioning Process Standard Unveiled

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Ensuring that building systems perform as designed and buildings operate as fine-tuned facilities are goals of a new standard for the commissioning process.

The standard, billed as ASHRAE’s first published standard on the process, is as an industry consensus document applicable to all new construction projects and systems, ASHRAE said.

ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 202-2013, Commissioning Process for Buildings and Systems, identifies the minimum acceptable commissioning process for buildings and systems as described in ASHRAE’s Guideline 0-2005, The Commissioning Process, according to an announcement Thursday (Sept. 26).

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The commissioning process assumes that owners, programmers, designers, contractors and operations and maintenance entities are fully accountable for the quality of their work, according to ASHRAE.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The commissioning process assumes that owners, programmers, designers, contractors and operations and maintenance entities are fully accountable for the quality of their work, according to ASHRAE.

What is Building Commissioning?

The commissioning process is a “quality-focused” approach for enhancing building projects, according to ASHRAE. It begins at project inception and continues throughout the life of a facility.

The process focuses on specific tasks of verification and documentation regarding all commissioned systems and assemblies to ensure they are planned, designed, constructed, verified, tested and operated to meet the building owner’s project requirements, said Gerald Kettler, P.E., chair of the committee that wrote the standard.

The commissioning process assumes that owners, programmers, designers, contractors and operations and maintenance entities are fully accountable for the quality of their work, ASHRAE said in announcing the standard.

13-Step Process

The standard defines the commissioning process through 13 functional steps.

According to ASHRAE, the commissioning activities and accompanying deliverable are as follows:

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1. Initiate the commissioning process, including defining roles and responsibilities;
2. Define the project requirements, which result in the Owner’s Project Requirements (OPR) document;
3. Develop commissioning plan and produce a written Commissioning Process Plan;
4. Plan design approach to Owner’s Project Requirements—defines the basis of design;
5. Set contractor commissioning requirements, which are included in the commissioning specifications;
6. Design review by the commissioning authority to provide feedback and a design review report;
7. Submittals review verifies compliance with the OPR in a submittal review report;
8. Observation  & Testing verifies system performance with results documented in construction checklists and reports;
9. Issues resolution coordination is done with an issues and resolution log;
10. Systems manual assembly results in a systems manual for building operation;
11. Conduct training for building operations with training plans and records;
12. Post occupancy operation commissioning provides an end of warranty commissioning report; and
13. Assembly of a commissioning report captures the entire project commissioning documentation.

ASHRAE notes that it is working on several other guidelines related to commissioning: Guideline 0.2P, The Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies; Guideline 1.2P, The Commissioning Process for Existing HVAC&R Systems; Guideline 1.3P, Building Operation and Maintenance Training for the HVAC&R Commissioning Process; and Guideline 1.4P, Procedures for Preparing Facility Systems Manuals.

To Purchase Standard

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The cost of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 202-2013 is $72 ($61 for ASHRAE members).

To order, contact ASHRAE Customer Contact Center at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), fax 678-539-2129, or visit www.ashrae.org/bookstore.

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ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is a building technology society with more than 50,000 members worldwide.