CI 2009 EAp1: Fundamental Commissioning of Building Energy Systems

I suspect that you're out of luck. However, you could try this angle with the reviewers: The point of requiring Cx1. Commissioning (Cx) is the process of verifying and documenting that a building and all of its systems and assemblies are planned, designed, installed, tested, operated, and maintained to meet the owner's project requirements. 2. The process of checking the performance of a building against the owner's goals during design, construction, and occupancy. At a minimum, mechanical and electrical equipment are tested, although much more extensive testing may also be included. in the bid docs to ensure that it will happen. If, instead, you go ahead and do the Cx now and submit the actual Cx report, maybe they'll overlook the fact that it wasn't in the docs? Even if the LEED cert doesn't come through, at least your client will have Commissioned systems...

Thanks Nadav, I suspect this will be the thoughts of the GBCI as well. I formally submitted a CIRCredit Interpretation Ruling. Used by design team members experiencing difficulties in the application of a LEED prerequisite or credit to a project. Typically, difficulties arise when specific issues are not directly addressed by LEED information/guide on this issue so we'll see. The angle I took was to honestly lay out the projects lack of commissioning and ask if the project team followed the LEED EB:OM commissioning requirements for EAp1 and EAc2.1 we could satisfy the intent of this credit. Again, I doubt this will be an acceptable strategy but I'll be sure to check back in.

Monu, I may be missing something but I am not sure what the question is in terms of commissioning. At least in terms of this credit, I think you simply need to commission the system you have—whatever it is.

I believe your scope description is consist with the intent of the commissioning.

I agree, your scope seems reasonable. We have not had this kind of request before. Definately we have commissioned hot water systems and instantaneous heaters, that kind of thing, but not just a sink.

It seems you could also compare the hot water temperarure at the sink to the design HWHeater supply temperature. If there's a significant delta up or down, more investigation is warranted. The cold water temp could also be read to see the difference between City supply water temperature. The same comparison could be done for water pressures. If, instead of a campus with one owner, this were a commmercial space with a lease and landlord, the tenant should make water temperatue and pressure issues known sooner than later.

This basic verification seems more about standard punchlist activity than LEED Cxg, and hopefully the MEP has already verified the above (along with leaks and water hammer) separate from the CxAThe commissioning authority (CxA) is the individual designated to organize, lead, and review the completion of commissioning process activities. The CxA facilitates communication among the owner, designer, and contractor to ensure that complex systems are installed and function in accordance with the owner's project requirements.. If so, maybe include that page of the project punchlist in the Cxg response to the reviewer also. Where is the line between LEED Cxg report and the MEP Punchlst?

Do the MEP and CxA share their findings (punchlist and csummary xg report) normally? Thanks for the feedack.

I hate to be vague, but the answer is really "it depends". Each project is very unique, and while there are some baseline costs that every Cx1. Commissioning (Cx) is the process of verifying and documenting that a building and all of its systems and assemblies are planned, designed, installed, tested, operated, and maintained to meet the owner's project requirements. 2. The process of checking the performance of a building against the owner's goals during design, construction, and occupancy. At a minimum, mechanical and electrical equipment are tested, although much more extensive testing may also be included. project requires, the major item is time on site doing Functional Performance TestingThe process of determining the ability of the commissioned systems to perform in accordance with the owner's project requirements, basis of design (BOD), and construction documents.. So, the amount of equiipment, the type of equipment, the desired statistical testing, fundamental only, enhanced too, etc all factor into the cost.

CI is somewhat unique in that the amount of equipment that is under control of the tennant is highly variable as well, which greatly affects the scope.

My recommendation is to talk with a Cx provider in your area and describe the project or types of projects you do to get an idea of what should be budgeted. In our CI projects, their is no real trend, we have projects that were $0.50/sf to $1.50/sf. It really "depends" on the project!

Andrew, for a current LEED-CI v2009 project, I got this feedback from GBCI: "The Project Information forms in LEED-CI v2009 are referring to the Project "Owner" (i.e. the Tenant in my case), unless noted otherwise, and the Project Owner is also the person who should sign the LEED agreement(s)."
Does this help clarify?

I would expect the LEED project reviewer would still require you to meet the six items of the Owner's Project Requirements. (see page #124 of the LEED CI reference guide)

The LEED online template allows you to check "Included" "Partial" or "N/A" for each of the MEP systems that require commissioning. If every item is checked as "N/A" you would most likely check the special circumstances box and include a narrative describing your project scope.

Hope this helps.

You can however claim exemption from the Water prerequisite if plumbing isn't in the scope

The practical situation is that the GCBI is a little lenient on the timing of this prerequisite credit. Usually they are willing to accept this prerequisite under certain conditions 1) The project needs to be early in the construction phase (preferably during submittal review process). So the commissioning requirements and any recommendations from the CxAThe commissioning authority (CxA) is the individual designated to organize, lead, and review the completion of commissioning process activities. The CxA facilitates communication among the owner, designer, and contractor to ensure that complex systems are installed and function in accordance with the owner's project requirements. can be incorporated into the project. 2) The client and the project team needs to incorporate the commissioning requirements into the project specification (usually done as an addendum or bulletin), and implement the commissioning plan. Keep in mind that this typically is a change order to the client for the contractors to participate and implement commissioning effort. 3) The client and the project team needs to put together an Owner's Project Requirement, and Basis of Design (BoDBasis of design (BOD) includes design information necessary to accomplish the owner's project requirements, including system descriptions, indoor environmental quality criteria, design assumptions, and references to applicable codes, standards, regulations, and guidelines.) to be review and commented by the CxA. The owner and the project team needs to be willing to review CxA's comments and incorporate any changes that make would improve the operation and maintenance of the systems to be commissioned.

James,

The Bird's Eye View narrative is a broad description of the commissioning requirements. The reason for the description is due to various tenant fit-out projects and leased agreements, and the amount of control a tenant has on the base building system.

Keep in mind that most of the tenants do not have access or control to the base building system.

Most of the CI projects only involve adding few new equipments and relocating existing equipments, very few projects involve installation of new an entire independent HVAC systems (AHU1.Air-handling units (AHUs) are mechanical indirect heating, ventilating, or air-conditioning systems in which the air is treated or handled by equipment located outside the rooms served, usually at a central location, and conveyed to and from the rooms by a fan and a system of distributing ducts. (NEEB, 1997 edition) 2.A type of heating and/or cooling distribution equipment that channels warm or cool air to different parts of a building. This process of channeling the conditioned air often involves drawing air over heating or cooling coils and forcing it from a central location through ducts or air-handling units. Air-handling units are hidden in the walls or ceilings, where they use steam or hot water to heat, or chilled water to cool the air inside the ductwork., chillers, boilers, pumps, etc).

So LEED only requires CI project to commission the equipments under the tenant's project scope. Thurs the based building equipments and Core & Shell equipments do not apply.

So, based on your description of your project only the VAVs and asscoated control should included under the commissioning scope. But every good commissioning engineer has to consider and evaluate if tenant's HVAC system is compatible to the existing system layout, e.g., Does the existing AHU have VFDA variable frequency drive (VFD) is a device for for controlling the speed of a motor by controlling the frequency of the electrical power supplied to it. VFDs may be used to improve the efficiency of mechanical systems as well as comfort, because they use only as much power as needed, and can be adjusted continuously. and duct static pressure control? How the tenant's equipment control is being integrated with the base builiding BMS (Building Management System)?

Also, do not forget that LEED requires the CI project to commission the HVAC system, lighting system, domestic HW system and any renewable system.

Thanks Jan. Based on your analysis, i would agree that only the VAVs and associated controls should be included under the commissioning scope as far as HVAC goes. The AHUs, chillers, etc are all part of the base-building system and we do not necessarily have access to them. That equipment is maintained and controlled by the base building facilities staff.

I am also aware that DHWDomestic hot water (DHW) is water used for food preparation, cleaning and sanitation and personal hygiene, but not heating., lighting and renewable systems would be included. Those systems would fall under a similar evaluation as to what is base building and what is tenant scope.

The LEED requirements don't specifically call for experience on LEED projects, so I would say you're good to go.

It depends on the project that you are going to work on. I believe LEED requires at least 2 similar project experiences in order to qualify to be a CxAThe commissioning authority (CxA) is the individual designated to organize, lead, and review the completion of commissioning process activities. The CxA facilitates communication among the owner, designer, and contractor to ensure that complex systems are installed and function in accordance with the owner's project requirements.. Commissioning experience in pharmaceutical (or validation) might not qualify you to commissioning a commerical building due to differences in equipments and systems. Unless during your past experience you have encounter similar equipment and system type.

Yes, as long as they are not a member of the design and construction team.

...and the project is not more than 50,000 square feet. Otherwise an independent CxAThe commissioning authority (CxA) is the individual designated to organize, lead, and review the completion of commissioning process activities. The CxA facilitates communication among the owner, designer, and contractor to ensure that complex systems are installed and function in accordance with the owner's project requirements. is required.

Doesn't the building engineerA qualified engineering professional with relevant and sufficient expertise who oversees and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in the project building. also have to meet the LEED requirement of experience on 2 projects as the CxAThe commissioning authority (CxA) is the individual designated to organize, lead, and review the completion of commissioning process activities. The CxA facilitates communication among the owner, designer, and contractor to ensure that complex systems are installed and function in accordance with the owner's project requirements.?

Yes. I didn't mean to exclude these additional requirements in my original response. I was simply trying to speak to the issue of whether the person can be on the owner's staff.

Regarding Steve Khouw's message:

p.221 Table 2 of the LEED Reference Guide clearly states that "Owner employee or staff" can be the CxAThe commissioning authority (CxA) is the individual designated to organize, lead, and review the completion of commissioning process activities. The CxA facilitates communication among the owner, designer, and contractor to ensure that complex systems are installed and function in accordance with the owner's project requirements. regardless of the square feet of the building.

Also in the text, both for the cases "larger than 50,000 sq.ft." and "smaller than 50,000 sq.ft." , the CxA can be "a qualified staff member of the owner".

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Yes, in any situation it  can be a qualified staff person for the owner.

The responsibility of the CxAThe commissioning authority (CxA) is the individual designated to organize, lead, and review the completion of commissioning process activities. The CxA facilitates communication among the owner, designer, and contractor to ensure that complex systems are installed and function in accordance with the owner's project requirements. is to verify the Owner's Project Requirements is being implemented throughout all the project phases. In another word, verifying owner's interest is being protected. So if the CxA is from the owner's side or an independent firm of the design or construction team (conflict of interest) would qualify.

As far as I know, if someone on the owners staff has the experiance and requisite projects, they can be the fundamental and enhanced commissioning agent. As long as they comply with all the requirements for the review and implementation.

I served that function for our office expansion which gained LEED Silver a couple of years ago, and we got both EAp1 and EAc3.

The only credit a CI project in a LEED certified building can automatically achieve is SSc1 Site Selection, Option 1.

However, there is possibility for the project to achieve some credits (mostly under Sustainable Sites) through the same compliance path as that of the CS building if the requirements have been met (i.e. SSc2 Development Density and Community Connectivity, SSc3.1 Public Transportation Access, SSc3.2 Bicycle Storage and Changing Rooms, SSc3.3 Parking Availability).

If SSc3.2 Bicycle Storage and Changing Rooms and SSc3.3 Parking Availability have been pursued and achieved by the CS project, the CI tenant must somehow have these elements designated to their space and occupants. This can ensure the tenant has access to / owns the bike racks and preferred parkingPreferred parking, available to particular users, includes designated spaces close to the building (aside from designated handicapped spots), designated covered spaces, discounted parking passes, and guaranteed passes in a lottery system. spaces over other tenants.

Additionally, if low flow water use fixtures have been installed as part of the CS LEED certified project, this may award the CI tenant credits (however, note 20% Water Use Reduction is now a prerequisite in 2009, and not a credit).

The current accreditations/certifications that are out there for commissioning agents are not very meaningful due to limited curriculum and a lack of field experience required to earn them. We'd recommend looking for Cx1. Commissioning (Cx) is the process of verifying and documenting that a building and all of its systems and assemblies are planned, designed, installed, tested, operated, and maintained to meet the owner's project requirements. 2. The process of checking the performance of a building against the owner's goals during design, construction, and occupancy. At a minimum, mechanical and electrical equipment are tested, although much more extensive testing may also be included. agents through local utilities, state and local agencies, or full members of the Building Commissioning Association. Also, any prospective agents should be able to demonstrate experience on a similar project type. Note that CI 2009 Cx credits are now aligned with all the other rating systems. As such, Cx requirements have become more stringent than CI 2.0 and Cx agents now need to have experience in at least 2 projects. This wasn't the case for CI 2.0