Real Estate Journal — New Jersey — September 15 - 28, 2017 — 15B
www.marejournal.com
M id A tlantic
N ew J ersey
By Charles J. Caramanna, PE, LEED AP, CCP, CPMP, Greyhawk Commissioning- Who Needs It?
D o your building oc- cupants wear sweat- ers inside? In the
contained an integrated CO2 sensor, the commissioning team was able to reduce the minimum outside air intake to 10% increasing the comfort of the inside space and the ef- ficiency of the facility power consumption. All three cases share two common benefits, increased oc- cupant comfort and improved building efficiency. So, ask yourself this simple ques- tion – Can I benefit from this process? Charles J. Caramanna, PE, LEED AP, CCP, CPMP is principal/operations manager at Greyhawk. n
Case 2: During a retro-com- missioning exercise in a facility that recently received HVAC
occupants were continuously wearing extra clothes and com- plaining. While interviewing
the fume hood was running in reverse when the control switch was in the “off” posi- tion. The commissioning team quickly implemented a fix by reversing the polarity and an “age old” comfort problem had been solved. Case 3: An HVAC upgrade project was being performed at a local high school. The project called for new unit ventilators in every classroom. The design documents required that the unit ventilators be set for a minimum 25% outside air in- take causing inefficiency in the winter by heating this volume of outside air. Since each unit
summer? In the winter? Do they use space heat- ers or fans? Does paper jam regularly in your copy machine or printer? Do
More and more building owners are looking toward existing building commissioning as a solution to environmental air quality issues resulting from occupant comfort and efficiency issues.
Charles Caramanna
your building occupants yawn excessively indoors? Do they have “pep in their step” or are they tired or lethargic? If you notice some of these things to be true--maybe you need build- ing commissioning. More and more building owners are looking toward ex- isting building commissioning as a solution to environmental air quality issues resulting from occupant comfort and efficiency issues cited above. Existing building commission- ing is performed on occupied and in-service buildings which have systems that either never performed as intended or have suffered degradation over years of service and require a tune-up. Below are three case sum- maries illustrating the ap- plication of and benefits re- sulting from existing building commissioning. As you read through each case summary as a building owner, you may re- late to relevant circumstances experienced by occupants of your own facility. Case 1: A local hospital has two operating rooms serviced by a standalone HVAC unit for fresh air, heating and cooling located in a penthouse. Both operating rooms regularly suffer from inside air that is too cold and too humid affect- ing the occupants comfort and at times making the surgi- cal instruments difficult to handle. During the investiga- tion phase, the commission- ing team determined that the cooling and heating coils were in the wrong relative sequence and the outside air damper was stuck in the open position due to a faulty linkage. During the implementation phase of the process, the outside air damper linkage was repaired and the coils were retrofitted in the correct sequence -first cold, then hot, creating the required dehumidification. Controls were then adjusted to accommodate this new con- figuration.
upgrades throughout, the fa- cilities manager pointed out an unrelated issue. One par- ticular science laboratory was constantly cold especially in the winter months and the lab
the facilities manager, it was determined that this issue had been ongoing for years since a building improvement project. An investigation ensued and it was soon determined that
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