-
Benefits of commissioning
You may think of commissioning, including hiring a commissioning agent, as an added cost—and it is. It’s likely to reduce your operational costs, however, by yielding 5%–10% improvements in energy efficiency and ensuring that facilities personnel know how to operate key building systems. It’s also a great way to catch mistakes like missing or incorrectly installed equipment, avoiding occupant complaints and callbacks, indoor air quality and thermal comfort problems, premature equipment failure, and litigation.
Commissioning (Cx1. Commissioning (Cx) is the process of verifying and documenting that a building and all of its systems and assemblies are planned,...
Step-by-step credit help
Got the gist of the LEED credit but not sure how to actually achieve it? LEEDuser gives step-by-step help. Members get:
- Checklists covering all the key action steps you'll need to earn the credit.
- Hot tips to give you shortcuts and avoid pitfalls.
- Cost tips to assess what a credit will actually cost, and how to make it affordable.
- Ideas for going beyond LEED with best practices.
- All checklists organized by project phase.
- On-the-fly suggestions on useful items from the Documentation Toolkit, Resources, and Credit Language.
-
Credit language straight from USGBC
Need to check up on the exact LEED credit language from the LEED Rating System on the fly? LEEDuser includes the verbatim language. Members get:
- Easy access to the official LEED credit language with just a couple of clicks.
- On the jobsite without your bulky LEED Reference Guide? Check up on the credit language details here.
- Credit language content is used by permission of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Your credit-by-credit reference library
Why waste time chasing down referenced standards and supporting resources when LEEDuser links you directly to the ones you need? LEEDuser has gathered all the best tools out there and organized them by credit for easy reference. Members get links to:
- Organizations that can give information or help on a credit.
- Standards or studies that are key reference points for credits and prerequisites.
- Articles that help explain important topics.
- Key documents or references for credit inputs.
- Software tools you can use to run calculations or simulations.
Documentation Toolkit
In the end, LEED is all about documentation. LEEDuser’s Documentation Toolkit saves you time and helps you avoid mistakes with:
- Calculators to help assess credit compliance.
- Tracking spreadsheets for materials purchases.
- Spreadsheets and forms to give to subs and other team members.
- Guidance documents on arcane LEED issues.
- Sample templates to help guide your narratives and LEED Online submissions.
- Examples of actual submissions from certified LEED projects.
3 Comments
Enhanced Commissioning
I have a question and a comment. The question first:
Is the cost per square foot fee mentioned in the article for Enhanced 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. intended to represent a cost to do both, or just the added cost to do Enhanced? I am also curious what part of the country this fee is being obtained.
My comment:
Regarding the matrix graphic included in the article, Cx professionals typically do not perform the functional testing, though they may find themselves demonstrating how to do parts of a test to a installing contractor, if it has some particularly difficult requirements. They will typically verify the functional testing, once it has been initially completed by the installing contractors. This verification is usually done by witnessing a repeat of the tests, and in some instances directly participating in measuring the outcomes. The leading members of the committee which wrote ASHRAE Guideline 0-2005, "The Commisioning Process" expected the process be applied in this fashion.
I suppose one could have 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. perform the functional testing, but there is a significant incentive lost if the installing contractor is not required to complete a successful testing cycle first. The incentive is simply that the installing contractor will want to only do the test once, and not be subjected to repeated callbacks because the installation is not working as the Engineer intended. If a third party is doing all of the testing without the contractor's involvement, there is no financial incentive for the contractor to make certain his installation works as intended. The retainage held on most projects is typically not enough to insure the contractor will return to correct problems. The Cx process applied with the oversight of a qualified commissioning provider limits errors in both design and construction by focusing the entire project team on delivering quality to the owner. That role does not exist in most project teams.
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jul 01 2010
James, I would think of enhanced 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. as including or subsuming fundamental Cx, so the fee quoted is for enhanced, but understand that it includes the key components of fundamental. The fee was found in a national study—I don't know which regions it covered.
Your comment on functional testing is a great one and a fair critique of the language we chose to use. I will modify it to be more nuanced.
James Thornton replied Principal, Rice & Gardner Consultants, Inc Jul 05 2010
Tristan,
Thank you for your response. I appreciate the clarification.
We usually structure our fee proposals listing the LEED Fundamental 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. Services as a separate set of services from Enhanced Cx so the owner or architect understands he is receiving two distinctly different set of services. Depending upon the nature of the proposal request, we either provide a lump sum for both, or we provide separate pricing. Some owners do not understand the value of Enhanced Cx and just want what satisfies the LEED Cx prerequisite.
Please register to use the forum.