The Benefits of Independent Commissioning

The Commissioning Process offers an additional layer of protection for the building owner and ensures the delivery of a high-quality product by verifying that the planning, design, construction, and operational processes are achieving their goals. Often, the contractors and project management team are primarily focused on their portion of the project and are only testing the work for which they are responsible.

A Commissioning agent focused on the “whole project”, giving them the ability to recognize potential problems and ensure each piece of the project is integrated with the rest of the project. This provides long-term benefits like the following:

• Extend building’s lifespan – Proper commissioning ensures your facilities systems continually operate according to specifications. Extending the lifespan not only guards the conditions of your facilities, but also minimizes risk to the people, products, and equipment inside.

• Minimize human error – Without a standardized maintenance regimen, the upkeep and preservation of your buildings are largely left to chance.  Commissioning can help to overcome this with pre-established procedures that keep everyone accountable and on the same page.

• Rapid Return on Investment (ROI) – According to a recent LBNL study, the estimated payback time for commissioning is 1.1 years with existing buildings and 4.2 years with new buildings. 

Payback time for re-commissioning in laboratories, healthcare, and food production buildings were most rapid averaging less than a year, while lodging, office, and higher education buildings have shown a payback period of less than two years. Depending on the size, type of use, and complexity of your buildings, you might see variants in the payback time.  As a high level “Rule of Thumb”, commissioning services range from $0.50 to over $2.50 per square foot of space or 1.5 to 3% of the Mechanical and electrical costs of a project, depending on the complexity of the space and the systems installed.

First and foremost, most Public Sector and Government project are now requiring commissioning as part of the project specification. In addition, many State and some local building codes have adopted language into the codes that require commissioning on projects of certain size.  But there should be more to “Why” than because you have too. Thankfully, there are many good or better reasons than “because you have to”.

Q. “We already paid the contractor to perform startup and checkout of all the equipment, why do we need to pay someone else to duplicate this work?”

A. Commissioning is not a duplication of what a contractor does in preparation to turn the facility over to the owner. The reality of construction – all construction, without exception – is that in the rush to complete the project on schedule, people make honest mistakes, defective equipment and components go undetected and untested, motors are accidentally wired to run backwards, connections are not tightened or made at all, control system components are defective, or sequences are not fully checked out, controller boards fail, valves stick… the list of real and potential failure conditions is endless. 

Commissioning provides a systematic and rigorous set of tests tailored to validate performance, and to discover and correct problems before the job is turned over to you. It helps avoid the pain of having to shut down your operations to correct these problems – after they have already caused an unplanned outage.

Q. “If we commission our facility, we’ll never experience any unplanned outages?”

A. Unfortunately, no, that cannot be guaranteed. There may still be conditions that will not be caught by the commissioning process.  It allows for the detection and correction of many construction errors and may highlight design deficiencies as well. 

Commissioning reduces the total number of potential failures that could occur. Frequently while commissioning, out-of-the-ordinary condition occurs that reveals vulnerabilities that would have otherwise gone undetected. When these situations arise, the Commissioning Agent notifies the Owner, and conversations can be had such that, with the involvement of the design and construction teams, these scenarios can be mitigated.  

Q. Why can the task of commissioning not be undertaken by one of the other contractors or my operations team, as that may reduce up-front expenses?

A. The primary reason commissioning tasks should not be undertaken by a contractor or team member already engaged on the project is simply Human Error. Contractors may have a bias towards certain products or methods. This can often prevent research into alternate solutions or better practices for your specific building. 

A Commissioning Agent is more likely to find alternate procedure or deficiencies in design and methodology. They do not need to disguise or hide any flaws, because they work as the owners trusted advisor and preventing issues is their primary goal.

Q. Why recommission systems, isn’t Building Commissioning only for New Construction?

 
A.  No! The two primary types of commissioning are New Construction and Existing Building or Re-Commissioning.  While New Building Commissioning is most common, existing buildings can benefit from Recommissioning, especially if no on-going commissioning has taken place within a facility or there has been significant changes in how the facility is utilized. 

These services are invaluable when undergoing remediation work on your HVAC systems or structure.  Often building operations “stray” away from the original design with time. You can bring your building’s assets back to optimal performance through Recommissioning and remediation, ideally every three to five years. This process can also help facility managers prioritize projects based on the greatest areas of risk.