Retrotec USACE User Manual

Page 78

56 ENERGY & PROCESS ASSESSMENT PROTOCOL

commissioning: “Continuous Commissioning is an ongoing process to resolve
operating problems, improve comfort, optimize energy use and identify ret-
rofi ts for existing commercial and institutional buildings and central plant
facilities.” Furthermore, the following general phases for CC are given:

Develop the CC plan

■

Develop performance baselines

■

Conduct system measurements and develop CC measures

■

Implement CC measures

■

Document comfort improvements and energy savings

■

Keep the commissioning continuous

■

Introducing a continuous commissioning process to a building can thus be

described as a multilevel process. The process will be a top-down approach
that starts on the building level and goes down to selected single components
if necessary. The available information for the building (stock data and mea-
surement) will increase from step to step and will increasingly enable a more
detailed analysis of the building performance.

Figure 17 describes our view on continuous commissioning as a four-step pro-

cedure on a time scale. Steps 1–3 correspond to energy assessment Levels I–III
discussed in previous chapters. It is important to notice that the continuous com-
missioning approach can be introduced right after step 1 because the building
classifi cation is already available at that stage. To clarify, we strongly recommend to
observe the building’s behavior continuously—at whatever level seems appropri-
ate—to make sure it stays in the condition reached after the assessment.

1. Operational rating (simple benchmark)

2. Asset rating (+installation of data acquisition)

3. FDD + optimization

4. Regular inspection

Time

Operational rating
(Simple benchmark)

Asset rating +
availability of hourly data

Ongoing continuous commissioning

Operation without faults
and optimized,
savings + cost documented

Figure 17. Scheme of the four-step procedure on a time scale as developed in BuildingEQ.