subject: Reap the Harvest of Improved Facilities Management and Reduce Energy Costs [print this page] Reap the Harvest of Improved Facilities Management and Reduce Energy Costs
What can facility managers do that will benefit both equipment operations and operational services and, will also lower energy use and the annual energy spend.
PLENTY!
Where do you begin? Energy audits, energy assessments, energy upgrades and system improvements all address operability and energy management from various perspectives. Another approach that has gained prominence is Commissioning. Commissioning helps move your building operations activities forward, improving building performance and lowering the energy use costs for building operations.
What is commissioning?
There are various forms of basic "commissioning" and work to ensure buildings operate as intended. The five major variations included:
Commissioning (Cx) is performed to insure that new buildings operate as the owner intends; building staffs are prepped to operate and maintain the building systems and equipment. The work involves an intense formal quality assurance process. Initiating with the design phase, the other project phases of construction, occupancy and operations round out the process.
Retro-commissioning (RCx) Building that were never commissioned are best served by retro-commissioning /AKA Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx).
Recommissioning - (RCx) Same acronymDifferent conditions. Recommissioning techniques are applied to buildings that were previously commissioned either at or after construction or retro commission after construction.
Continuous Commissioning - (CC) A building receives commissioning services in an on-going basis. The goal is to ensure continuous performance improvements.
Monitoring Based Commissioning - (MBCx) Coupling Retro commissioning techniques with ongoing building energy system monitoring, produces monitoring based commissioning. This process is used when facilities are targeting substantial persistent energy savings.
As a facility manager in an existing building(s), and for this discussion, let us focus on retro-commissioning. The US EPA Energy Star program has coined a definition of Recommissioning.
"Retro-commissioning applies the commissioning process to existing buildings and seeks to improve how building equipment and systems function together. Retro- commissioning can often resolve problems that occurred during building design or construction, or address problems that developed during the building's life." From Retro-commissioning Guide for Building Owners
The Building Commissioning Association has defined retro-commissioning as
"a systematic process for investigating, analyzing, and optimizing the performance of building systems by improving their operation and maintenance toensure their continued performance over time. Retro- commissioning helps makethe building systems perform interactively to meet the owner's current facilityrequirements."
Building Commissioning Association website.
We understand the what. Now let's go to the how.
There are five essential steps to RCx. To conduct RCx, you plan, investigate, implement, verify and then step back.
Planning involves a screening review of candidate buildings to determine the suitability of RCx to achieve improvements.
Investigation involves evaluating, collecting, inspecting and recommending actions that when implemented, can produce improvements. It is here that RCx practitioners develop a list of recommended actions and the estimation of cost and savings associated with the recommendation.
Implementation involves working with the building representatives to put all (or a sampling) of the recommendation in place.
Verification is the step during which a comparison is made to what was in place to what is now in place. Verification assures that the retro commissioning activities have been successful.
Stepping back is necessary as you closeout the process and complete project. A report is written, training with the individuals who will continue to operate and monitor the facility commences and a path forward is developed to ensure the gains achieved are maintained and the framework for continuous improvement is established.
Some real world approaches used in RCx include:
1) Comparing the buildings actual operating and occupancy schedule with the zone temperature set-points and re-align them to
Eliminate concurrent heating and cooling
Reduce /eliminate over ventilation in spaces
2) Address equipment performance and system integration
3) Incorporate hot water and chilled water reset control strategies
Finally we come to the why.
It is important to pursue Cx benefits because as you undertake this process you will know (IDENTIFY) and can do (IMPLEMENT) no cost and low cost energy reduction and energy saving projects and measure (VALIDATE) that energy-use reductions are saving money in operations.
Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (one of the nation's premier science and technology centers in the federal national lab system) conducted a comprehensive commissioning study1. The results tell us that with commissioning, the average cost savings in energy range from $0.11 to $0.72 /sq-ft. Non-energy savings ranged from $0.10 to $0.45/sq-ft. The savings vary due to building type, location, and commissioning project scope. In 2009, the study team conducted a follow-up and expanded that scope to three times a many facilities. 643 buildings and 99 million sq-ft of floor space in 26 states were studied. The results remained consistent. The team found that construction projects applying a comprehensive commissioning strategy achieved nearly two times the overall median level of savings, and five-times the savings of projects with a constrained approach. The non-energy benefits are also extensive. In many cases all or part of the commissioning cost was offset by savings.
In the RCx process you are provided an opportunity to align your operations and space use to your actual current and planned usage conditions. The process allows you to take a fresh, objective look at how you, the building expert, operate your facility. In the end with RCx the "fruits" you grow are reduced energy costs, improved energy performance, a more knowledgeable service and operations team and a stronger, more focused delivery of building operations and facilities' services. Is it time to harvest the fruits of RCx for your company?
1Mills, E., H. Friedman, T. Powell, N. Bourassa, D. Claridge, T. Haasl, and M.A. Piette. 2004. "The Cost-Effectiveness of Commercial-Buildings Commissioning," Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. http://eetd.lbl.gov/EMills/PUBS/Cx-Costs-Benefits.html.
2 Mills, Evan. 2009. "Building Commissioning: A Golden Opportunity for Reducing Energy Costs and Greenhouse-gas Emissions". Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
