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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,...
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17 Comments
Residential HVAC included in commissioning scope of LEED CS?
I am working on a condominium project which is planning to certify LEED CS.
The residential units will be sold to buyers when the construction is complete.
The project owner will build the structure and core MEP. The interior construction of residential areas, including HVAC, will be left to buyer. There would be no central HVAC system in the core of the building.
The project owner explained that buyers would install their own HVAC based on their interior design and required cooling load.
Shall I include the HVAC systems of residential units in my commissioning scope? If not, it would be very few items in commissioning scope because most of HVAC service would be residential areas and there is not much HVAC equipment need to be commissioned for this project.
Thank you.
Jorng-ren, you must only commission equipment that falls within the LEED-CS scope.
OPR Format - Tabular vs. Narrative
Dear all,
Can the OPROwner's project requirements (OPR) is a written document that details the ideas, concepts, and criteria that are determined by the owner to be important to the success of the project. be written in a tabular form, instead of a narrative, especially that we are not required to upload this?
Thanks!
George, I think that should be fine, as long as the information is clear enough.
Tenant area commissioning
Our project is an office building with 10 floors on the top are leased out as a hotel tenant and we are seeking for LEED CS certified.
If the mechanical and electrical plant of the hotel are separated from the base building, can we do the commissioning scope cover only the core and shell of the base building and not include the hotel part which is only one big tenant?
However, can we include the hotel electrical and mechanical equipment in the energy simulation?
The scope of the systems applied for the project should be consistent. The 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. and modeling should cover the same scope of systems.
Fundamental commissioning of the base building
General Contractor is working on the base building, which is required to be LEED CS certified. There is a tenant in the base building that is beginning construction prior to the fundamental commissioning of the base building. Will the tenant need to hold off on connecting to the base building RTUs until the base building has completed its fundamental commissioning? We do not want the construction of the tenant work to interfere with the LEED certification of the base building and vice versa.
I would assume that the RTU's will need to be commissioned before the VAVVariable Air Volume (VAV) is an HVAC conservation feature that supplies varying quantities of conditioned (heated or cooled) air to different parts of a building according to the heating and cooling needs of those specific areas. boxes (?) associated with the tenant-finish can be commissioned. As long as this is the case, I would not think that the tenant-finish portion of the work would have an impact on the CS portion. In the meantime, connecting to the system should not be an issue as long as the CS systems are following the commissioning process.
Can a shell be LEED Core and Shell certified without HVAC?
We are working on a project with two stages. The first stage is a shell building, the second stage is a tenant finish-out.
The HVAC system is part of the tenant finish-out stage. The tenant asks that the shell building be LEED certified. Is it possible to LEED certify a building with no HVAC system? No matter how thick the walls, it won't use any energy! Applied to EA prerequisite 1 - what is there to commission if there is no HVAC?
Since fundamental commissioning is a prerequisite, is this a showstopper?
Lawrence, please see LEEDuser's guidance on 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. for a "cold, dark shell" at the bottom of the Bird's Eye View tab above. And I apologize for the slow response to your question.
Documentation
It appears to me that neither the OPROwner's project requirements (OPR) is a written document that details the ideas, concepts, and criteria that are determined by the owner to be important to the success of the project. or 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. documents are required uploads for this pre-requisite. Am I missing something?
No, they don't seem to be required uploads. For many credits, you're required to complete some document but not necessarily upload it. This seems to be one of those.
Post-Construction
Can this prerequisite be achieved if commissioning was not incorporated into the original design and construction phase? I am working with a building that was built and remained unoccupied for two years before deciding to pursue LEED-CS. We have commissioned the building post-construction, but will this be enough to comply?
Chris, Unfortunately I believe this project will not comply with the CS requirements. The intent of commissioning is for 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. to establish the owners requirements and then ensure that the implementation and function of the building systems meet those requirements. A completed project excludes this capability by default.
The Refernce Guide requires that the commissioning agent review the OPROwner's project requirements (OPR) is a written document that details the ideas, concepts, and criteria that are determined by the owner to be important to the success of the project. and 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. which must be done before final design (ideally before schematic design) and that commissioning must be incoporated into the construction documents. I am fairly confident that your project commissioning strategy would not be approved by the reviewer.
I am sorry for the bad news and my delay in responding to your question (I actually took a vacation).
Chris,
I am in a similar situation, however my client bought the building when only the structural work was finished. Then he decided to certify LEED; appointed 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., and implemented several modifications: changed the HVAC, installed automatic external courtains for energy savings, new control systems, changed the illumination system, changes the water appliances, etc. According to this, I was told that it is possible to certify since the building was not completely finished, and it was possible to commissioning of the energy related systems. Is that correct?
Jose, I would say it is possible to certify for the reason you give, although I hope Chris or someone with more experience will weigh in.
First, sorry for the delay. We have been busy with a lot of 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. work lately.
Since the building changed ownership I beleive this "restarts" the clock concerning Cx. You will have to provide documentation (OPROwner's project requirements (OPR) is a written document that details the ideas, concepts, and criteria that are determined by the owner to be important to the success of the project., 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., Cx Plan, etc) showing that you followed the complete Cx process once the new owner took control of the project.
Please note that this is somewhat unusual and you will probably need good clarification of the particulars for the the reviewers.
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