Can You Really Save on Commissioning Costs?

The answer is yes and no. Yes, you can save considerable money over the long term by implementing a facility wide commissioning program and no you cannot achieve longer term benefits by considering only first cost. In years past, commissioning was trimmed from many construction budgets and considered unnecessary. Building owners thought that hiring qualified contractors and designers made commissioning unnecessary. Experience has shown that this type of thinking has been extremely costly to building owners and managers.

Recent studies have shown that uncontrolled airflow in commercial buildings is often worse than in residential buildings. This shows the need for understanding the uncontrolled airflow when making energy decisions. Understanding energy usage in a commercial building begins with a "holistic" evaluation and understanding of the building. Building owners often over-simplify energy related issues and thereby limit the success of energy saving options. There has been a tendency to follow a narrow scope when trying to achieve energy efficiency. This narrow scope has typically involved upgrading HVAC systems alone. It was assumed that dynamic systems (e.g. hvac, lighting, motors) were the only systems to be concerned with because they are the energy using systems. The static systems, including the building envelope have been passed over when it comes to energy saving expenditures. Our experience has shown that this oversight can be a costly mistake.

To understand building energy issues, understanding the building as a whole is important. How a building uses energy is important, but how a building loses energy is equally important. This is why C.L.I. Group has adopted the "holistic" evaluation approach to buildings. Some of the recent studies which have emphasized this issue are listed below. We suggest you read over some of these studies before making decisions on energy budgets.

The paragraph below, taken from proceedings from the Fifth National Conference on Building Commissioning Proceedings discusses some of the issues which C.L.I. Group is addressing through our "holistic" approach to building performance.

Failure of Current HVAC Commissioning Practice

Current HVAC commissioning practice (Test and Balance; TAB) does not adequately deal with the four forms of UAF problems. TAB does not typically measure duct airtightness or air leakage from ductwork. Also, it often does not take into account duct leakage when determining building and zone air flow balances, often assuming that air flows at grills and registers represent total system flows. TAB generally measures air flows at grills/registers by flow hood or in ducts by means of pitot tube traverses. These measurements are generally not at the building air boundary, and therefore duct leakage which exists in those duct systems is not accounted for in the TAB test method.

Reference Publication: Cummings, J. B. and C.R. Withers, "Identifying Air Flow Failure Modes in Small Commercial Buildings: Tools and Methodologies for Building Commissioning Diagnostics." Fifth National Conference on Building Commissioning Proceedings, Huntington Beach, CA. April 1997.

In our experience we have witnessed the costly mistakes made in not considering buildings "holistically". Comfort complaints, premature system wear, moisture problems and high energy costs are the result of implementing a strategy which has not been well thought out. There are other costs which can be contributed to poor decision making when it comes to building issues including the risk of litigation, lost productivity and the inability to retain tenants. The amount of misinformation which is being given to facility managers and building owners has increased the difficulties in implementing an integrated design or maintenance approach to buildings. It often ends up that owners go with the low bid commissioning agent. However, they are comparing apples to oranges when evaluating proposals from balancing contractors and total building commissioning contractors. Although both claim to be commissioning contractors, the approaches that they recommend and use are quite different as are the costs and benefits. Commissioning only the HVAC system is kind of like going to the doctor and only having your blood pressure checked. There are many other health concerns which should be evaluated as part of a physical check-up just as there are many inter-related building systems which should be evaluated before considering a building healthy.

Lighting is a major contributor to wasted energy.	System maintenance can contribute to energy usage and system wear.	Excessive lighting wastes energy and disrupts employee performance.	Poor maintenance adds to unexpected expenses.
Excessive heat loss due to poor installation.	Heat loss and moisture are evaluated using infrared thermography.	Using chemical smoke to track air leakage through pipe chases.	Evaluating pressure differentials across building envelope.
Weights used in commissioning of passenger elevator	Siemens Fire Alarm Control Panel (FACP)	Danfoss VFD during commissioning of recent project at NASA	Siemens Apogee Building Automation System during commissioning process

The photos above show numerous areas that can affect facility performance and budget. Understanding how the systems of a building interact and how changes to any system can affect other systems can help facility owners/managers to prioritize maintenance and operating budgets for the best results. All of those items shown above can affect energy usage in a facility.

The thermal image shows a new building addition and the uncontrolled air leakage across the building envelope. This building was experiencing so much uncontrolled airflow that owners had to place space heaters throughout the area. In addition to the lost energy, sprinkler lines froze and split. These issues were easily identified as we retro-commissioned the addition. Unfortunately, the original construction was not commissioned. Needless to say that the costs to correct the problems were far higher than the costs of total building commissioning which would have discovered many of the problems present during design reviews and construction inspections.

This building was constructed with steel studs which were adding to the problems. Extensive thermal bridging which was creating cold surface temperatures at building interior were accounting for large amount of convective heat loss and also creating a strong potential for condensation issues in interstitial wall cavities. This building is an excellent example of oversights, caused by a narrow focus. The first cost savings resulted in poor building performance, poor design, excessive energy costs, indoor air quality and comfort issues and a high litigation potential. When C.L.I. Group was contacted to assess the building and come up with a solution, most of the blame for the problems was being focused on the mechanical engineer and hvac contractor. The reality was that the problems had little to do with either. By continuing to try to correct the problems by increasing system sizes, balancing systems, etc. the problems would have never been solved and the financial losses would have grown.

Lighting Upgrades

Lighting is a considerable user of energy in commercial buildings and should always be considered when considering energy saving retrofits. Below is a breakdown of commercial building energy usage.