Time for testing! Start-Up and TAB are complete, now it’s time for the commissioning provider and BAS contractor to schedule functional testing. After many months of pre-design, design, and construction activities, it’s FINALLY time to fulfill one of the most important roles of the commissioning process.
Now What? Logistics! Time to coordinate on-site testing with the BAS contractor. Who else? Well, all those stakeholders that usually participate in construction meetings… the mechanical contractor, the general contractor, and the owner. What about fire alarm testing? Maybe the electrical contractor hasn’t finished and will occasionally cut power while they’re working. Has the schedule already slipped? So much so that people have already moved in? Did you have vacation coming up?
Now, you are under pressure to stay out the way. Other stakeholders would rather you and the BAS contractor do your testing at night or over the weekend. With Connected Commissioning and Automated Functional Testing, now you can. Automated testing can be scheduled to run HVAC equipment through rigorous testing protocols whenever you want, day or night.
New Patient Tower Opens More Than a Month Ahead of Schedule
The holiday season was here. Snow was on the ground in Erie, Pennsylvania. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s new Patient Care Tower was buzzing with construction activities. This was December 2020! We were in the middle of the Third Wave of COVID-19 cases, with infection numbers already nearly three times as many as the Second Wave and rising. This project was bringing on 64 more intensive care beds, so the construction team was pressured to finish ahead of schedule to accommodate the surge.
Electrical had fallen behind schedule and a new contractor had stepped in. Power was intermittent throughout the day. The more than 220 VAV terminal units with hydronic heat were otherwise ready for functional testing. John Dombrowski, PE, Associate Principal, Commissioning Discipline Lead at Mazzetti, didn’t need to worry. Using OTTO’s Automated Functional Testing service, Mr. Dombrowski was able to schedule multiple rounds of testing, and re-testing, whenever he wanted. So, as part of multiple nights and weekends of automated testing, OTTO worked the night shift on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s. No complaints, no fuss, no worries.
School is Starting, Get out of the Way!
Outside of Seattle, WA, the Renton School District expected to open two elementary schools as normal for the 2021-2022 school year. The HVAC upgrades that had been installed over the summer were in operation but had not yet been commissioned through functional testing. Shane Doig, Commissioning Manager at Säzän Environmental Services, was now forced to conduct functional testing without disrupting students and faculty. Nights, weekends, and holidays are open for testing, however!
No worries for Mr. Doig, who enlisted OTTO to run a series of rigorous tests against 70 water-source heat pumps outside of normal school hours. OTTO forced the units into various occupied and unoccupied modes, including airside economizer control, multi-stage heating and cooling modes, demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) with CO2 sensors, and setback control with occupancy sensors. Oh, and morning warm-up, which happens in the wee hours between 3am and 6am, needed to be observed too.
OTTO got to work, watching the units perform all night long, undisturbed, to witness the effectiveness of the morning warmup sequence. Later that afternoon, at 4:00pm, pre-determined overrides activated a series of rigorous HVAC performance tests until 8:30pm. Mr. Doig reviewed the results from the comfort of his office, relayed and discussed issues with the BAS contractor via email and teleconference, then rescheduled re-testing whenever he wanted to.
ASHRAE Hard at Work in New Headquarters
Just outside of Atlanta, GA, ASHRAE had gone through a multi-year effort to secure, design and renovate a new global headquarters. Sustainability was a part of every decision, where mechanical systems consisted of radiant cooling and heating ceiling panels, integrated with variable speed ceiling fans, a dedicated outdoor air system, and occupancy controls. Darren Draper, PE, Principal, Director of Commissioning at the Epsten Group, was involved as the commissioning provider throughout this major effort.
Mr. Draper decided to give Automated Functional Testing a try. Similar to many other projects, the owner had already moved in while there were still many closeout activities ongoing. Over 70 individual radiant zones needed to be tested. Forcing radiant panels into various heating and cooling modes would be disruptive to the people in the building trying to work. Instead, OTTO simply ran through a customized 10-hour testing protocol on the weekend. One batch of tests even ran on Martin Luther King Jr. Day while the office was officially closed. Mr. Draper and his team did not need to be there, nor did the contractor.
Connected Cx and Automated Functional Testing
Plug a cellular-enabled 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.
NEW!!! OTTO Data Plan for $290/Month
Make it standard practice to independently collect and visualize high quality trend data on any project with a BAS. Choose how many OTTO Gateways you want to keep on hand to match your project load. Hook them up during your TAB verification site visit and leave it connected as long as you want. Move from project to project as needed.
Use on any type of commissioning or energy service, for new construction or existing building applications – OTTO connects to any BACnet or Tridium Niagara BAS.