(also referred to as automated commissioning) are
all systematic methods of ensuring that a building and its hardware
perform to the level intended by the owner and design team.
Buildings that are running properly benefit from reduced
maintenance, quality indoor environments, and lower energy costs.
Using only energy savings, the median payback for retro- and
recommissioning is less than a year and approximately five years
for new construction commissioning.
As sensor technology, building control networks, and building
supervisory software have evolved into building automation systems
(BAS), better information about building performance has become
available to building operators. Most modern BAS offer alarm
filters that may be set for out-of-range conditions and detecting
critical component faults. An emerging use of these capabilities is
the application of sophisticated algorithms to detect hidden
problems that are usually discovered in a formal commissioning
process. However, commissioning and retro-/re-commissioning lack
the advantage of continuing to monitor and identify issues, which
automated monitoring offers. The automated process can be as simple
as helping building operators gather data or as powerful as
actively testing the hardware and conducting reprogramming and
recalibrations. This Design Brief discusses developments in
research and commercially available automated monitoring
systems.
|
