How recommissioning improves your facility’s energy efficiency and comfort with low- to no-cost operational improvements is a question that many people ask. Even buildings designed to last a lifetime must be maintained and improved. Buildings are complicated, and as facilities age and tenant needs change, you’ll need to optimize yours to save energy. Existing building commissioning, also known as recommissioning, comes into play in this situation.
What Are Building Commissioning Strategies?
Although building commissioning has become a critical aspect of new construction projects, it is primarily used to ensure that all installed systems perform as intended; the reality is that most existing buildings have never been subjected to a commissioning or quality-assurance process, and as a result, are performing far below their intended design potential. The term retro-commissioning refers to the commissioning of existing buildings that have never been commissioned before to reduce energy waste, obtain energy cost savings for the owner, and identify and fix existing problems through diagnostic testing and O&M tune-up activities. First, it is critical to understand how the installed systems are supposed to run, evaluate and monitor their performance, and then create a prioritized list of the various systems’ operational opportunities.
What Is Building Recommissioning, and What Are the Benefits?
The commissioning process is a professional procedure for new buildings that guarantees the project meets the original design intent and occupant needs. In other terms, commissioning is a technique for ensuring the quality of new construction. The recommissioning process identifies possibilities to optimize operations and enhance energy efficiency based on current facility requirements for existing buildings that have been operational for several years. The idea is to optimize a facility to fit current demands with low-cost or no-cost changes rather than restoring it to its original design intent (more on this below).
According to Natural Resources Canada, the recommissioning process can result in 5 to 15% energy savings. Recommissioning projects save energy and increase comfort and interior environmental quality (including air quality, noise, and temperature). As a result, these enhancements may increase productivity and make residents happier.
When Should Recommissioning Happen?
Because of COVID-19, for example, occupancy needs and building uses are changing, particularly ventilation requirements. Recommissioning can help ensure that the building’s systems are still optimal and identify areas for improvement when ventilation best practices and occupancy needs change.
Owners with an extensive portfolio of buildings could begin by benchmarking to see the most energy-intensive ones. Recommissioning is often recommended for buildings with frequent resident complaints regarding noise or comfort (such as temperature). Buildings with inexplicable increases in energy consumption or recurrent equipment breakdowns, such as pumps that need rebuilding, air flow dampers and links in air handlers, or leaking valves in heating or cooling water loops, may be candidates for recommissioning. An energy audit may be a better fit if your equipment is ancient and has to be replaced totally, and it could be the first step in the recommissioning procedure in some situations. Natural Resources Canada has developed a pre-screening tool to assist building owners, and managers in determining whether their structure requires recommissioning.
More About Recommissioning
Existing buildings are optimized through recommissioning (RCx) to improve tenant comfort and conserve energy.
Significant Savings:
Building In most circumstances, RCx may save 5 to 15% on energy and has a payback time of fewer than three years. Savings of up to 30% per year are not uncommon.
RCx is one of the most cost-effective solutions to increase the performance of a building because it:
- improves the energy efficiency
- Building operations are optimized
- peak building energy demand management is improved,
- ensuring the long-term development and operation of buildings.
- enhances corporate strategy
The Longevity of RCx Benefits
Persistence strategies such as training superintendents, monitoring energy bills, ongoing commissioning, energy management information systems, and automatic diagnostics, such as the DABOTM continuous building optimization software program, can help a building maintain its optimal performance after recommissioning. These tactics can reduce the time it takes to detect problems and the expenses associated with them and make it easier to continue energy-saving and commissioning efforts over time, resulting in improved electromechanical system efficacy and performance.
RCx Guide
Existing buildings are optimized through recommissioning (RCx) to improve tenant comfort and conserve energy.
CanmetENERGY created a guide on properly using RCx as a cost-effective approach to enhancing performance and saving energy in institutional and commercial buildings by operating them more rationally.
The Recommissioning Guide for Building Owners and Managers is available for download. Click on the link below to download a pdf version of the guide:
The following are the goals of this paper, which are aimed at building owners and managers:
- Describe the impact of the RCx process, including its importance, obstacles, and benefits;
- Provide guidelines for the RCx process and its outcomes; and present options for increasing RCx benefits and lowering costs.
- Ensuring that the benefits of an RCx project are sustained
The more a business owner participates in the RCx process, the cheaper the expenses, the greater the rewards, and the longer the impact. Managers can use this guide to understand the recommissioning process better and lead their teams to take the necessary measures to achieve success.
Energy Audits vs. Recommissioning
Both recommissioning and energy audits look at how a building uses energy and where there could be chances to save money. On the other hand, Recommissioning projects focus on cost-effective operational savings and whole-building performance. In contrast, energy audits typically lead to capital projects such as considerable equipment improvements or retrofits.
Reducing equipment runtime, removing simultaneous heating and cooling, eliminating needless lighting hours, improving ventilation rates, and adding controls to pumps and fans are all operational modifications that can be made as part of a recommissioning project.
There may be some overlap between energy audit recommendations and recommissioning initiative recommendations. Variable frequency drives, for example, may be included in some post-energy audit projects. They are frequently used in recommissioning projects since they are a comparatively low-cost upgrade.
Recommissioning is a four-step process that follows a systematic but flexible approach:
- Setting objectives based on current facility requirements and gathering the right team and resources to carry out the procedure are part of the planning process.
- Investigation: This step entails evaluating, monitoring, and analyzing results and issues to calculate energy savings.
- Repairs and enhancements are made, and systems and equipment are re-tested for energy efficiency. Calibration or replacing sensors, using damper controls on economizers on ventilation systems, ensuring that energy recovery wheels are operating properly to condition outdoor air more efficiently, and repairing leaking valves in heating or cooling water loops are all examples of work done here.
- Transfer and persistence: This step entails creating and sticking to procedures for long-term energy savings and recognizing and applying for other benefits over time, such as schedule optimization.
The average cost of recommissioning is around 30 cents per square foot. By introducing low- and no-cost operational improvements, the approach strives to improve the whole performance of the facility, not only its energy performance.
On the other hand, energy audits provide snapshots of a building’s energy performance over a short period. Detailed energy audits typically cost between 10 and 20 cents per square foot, depending on the building’s size and complexity.
While the initial site visit for an energy audit may be less expensive than recommissioning, an energy audit often identifies capital upgrades that are more costly than the low- and no-cost operational changes done during recommissioning. The cost of the first audit is typically a fraction of the cost of the energy-saving measures implemented due to the audit.
According to Natural Resources Canada, the payback period for recommissioning is typically two to three years. Energy audit payback times are determined by the energy-efficiency measures taken following the audits, such as retrofit projects.
Who Should be in Charge of Recommissioning?
The recommissioning process necessitates the assistance of a skilled specialist at first. Many firms learn from the recommissioning professionals over time and develop a hybrid approach for ongoing maintenance and management of their operations (internal and external personnel). A request for proposal (RFP) or request for qualifications (RFQ) method can be used to find a building recommissioning specialist. Finding members of the Building Commissioning Association could be an excellent place to start. Local distribution companies frequently offer business partner programs, where they collaborate with contractors and experts who may be able to help with recommissioning. It’s critical to select someone who has had sufficient training and will spend time visiting your business in person. Because collaboration is an essential aspect of the recommissioning process, the individual must also work well with your team. Facility managers and energy managers can also participate in advanced building recommissioning training programs. Incentives for training that saves energy can be beneficial.
Buildings might be challenging to understand. Optimizing for energy efficiency and comfort, on the other hand, can go a long way toward improving your bottom line — and keeping occupants happy.
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