“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” – Some wrongly attribute this to Einstein
HVAC testing by a Commissioning (Cx) Provider is supposed to be a final validation of what the contractors have already done. The successful installation, quality control and pre-testing efforts by the HVAC and Controls Contractor just needs to be double-checked. Start-up has been “completed”, point-to-point on the BAS is “done”, test-and-balance is “approved”, everything is in “auto”. The contractor sometimes even formally asserts that the systems are now ready for validation!
Let’s not kid ourselves, you know how this story goes, and you probably routinely include extra fee to cover such a “contingency” … how many times have you arrived on site for functional testing and things just don’t work the way you and everyone else had hoped? This is not supposed to happen, but it does. All. The. Time.
It can be satisfying to help solve problems for the owner. In fact, commissioning wouldn’t be a service if things always worked out great. The reality is that “issues” take time, under the pressure of an already stressful project timeline, driving costs up and sometimes leaving problems unresolved. How can we do better and speed up the process at the same time?
Connected Commissioning Changes the Game.
Connected Commissioning is growing in popularity amongst commissioning providers, and for good reason. We’re not sure who coined the term (perhaps this ASHRAE article from 2016?), but it nicely captures the essence of marrying technology with commissioning.
The goals of connected commissioning are fairly straightforward, which were nicely articulated in this presentation on Smart Commissioning at the Building Commissioning Association’s Conference way back in 2015: Reduce issue correction time, run functional tests simultaneously, improve data flow and Cx quality… and Everything Gets Tested!
With Connected Commissioning, you can access live trend data on every BAS-connected piece of equipment, independent of the contractor. Watch in real-time how systems are operating. Is the chiller plant active? Are air handlers running yet? Are the terminal units even on the network yet?
Put some fault detection rules in place to automatically detect problems or better yet, transform your previously manual functional test script into an automated test that you can run as many times as you want (OTTO’s President spoke on Automated Functional Performance Testing is a Thing at AABC Commissioning Group’s Annual CxEnergy Conference this past spring).
Many questions are easily, and FACTUALLY, answered through data.
Owner’s Perspective.
It makes sense that commissioning providers would want to leverage technology to provide a better service and save time, but what does the owner think? Kaiser Permanente recently discussed their nationwide standards for Connected Commissioning at the Building Commissioning Association’s International Conference (Connected Cx: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly). For those who are skeptical, they make a strong case, made even stronger because they now only hire commissioning providers who use such tools. (Here is a free viewable recording of a similar presentation at the BCxA Northwest Chapter meeting in May)
OTTO Can Hook You Up.
How Does It Work? Plug a cellular-enabled OTTO gateway into the BAS network (no on-site internet required) and get as much or as little trend data as you want, as much or as little automated testing, as much or as little fault detection, on anything connected to the BAS.
How Much Does It Cost? Start with turn-key trend data collection, cloud storage and visualization of HVAC data points for just a penny a day!