PNNL

Abstract

The emerging practice of building commissioning generally provides energy savings of 10% to, in some cases, more than 60% of a building’s energy consumption. Moreover, commissioning ensures that equipment and systems are installed and operate properly, providing occupants with the conditions expected. Without commissioning, new buildings can have incorrect equipment installed, devices like fans installed backwards, and unimplemented control algorithms to mention a few deficiencies sometimes found. Existing buildings can have faulty and failed equipment such as clogged filters and coils, stuck dampers, leaky valves, and imbalanced air distribution, as well as overridden controls, improper set points, and incorrect schedules. Commissioning of new and existing buildings helps prevent and alleviate such problems. Yet only a small fraction of commercial buildings has ever been commissioned, and many buildings that have been commissioned have only a fraction of the recommended actions implemented. Time may change this situation or maybe other changes can accelerate the progress of commissioning. Will commissioning continue in the future as it is performed today or must it change? The authors share a vision for how the functions provided by commissioning could change in the future. The paper delves into the roles of automation technology for functional testing, diagnostics, prognostics, data management, asset tracking, and project management in building commissioning. Methods of delivery explored for these capabilities include laptop-, desktop-, and pda-based tools, web-based services, and ubiquitous embedded networked processing. The authors present a vision for how these technologies could change the practice of commissioning and the impacts this could bring for commercial buildings in the U.S. and throughout the world. Potential impacts on building performance, energy consumption, peak power, and occupant satisfaction are examined.