ASHRAE/IES has a new standard that focuses on the commissioning process.

The ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 202, Commissioning Process for Buildings and Systems, identifies the minimum acceptable commissioning process for buildings and systems, as described in ASHRAE’s Guideline 0-2005, The Commissioning Process. Under the new standard, the commissioning process applies to all construction projects and systems, and is an industry consensus document.

“Given the integration and interdependency of facility systems, a performance deficiency in one system can result in less than optimal performance by other systems,” says Gerald Kettler, chair of the committee that wrote the standard. “Implementing the commissioning process is intended to reduce the project capital cost through the warranty period and also reduce the life cycle cost of the facility.

Beginning at project inception, the commissioning process assumes owners, programmers, designers, contractors, and operations and maintenance entities are fully accountable for the quality of their work.

According to Kettler, the process includes tasks that verify that design, construction, verification, testing, documentation and training meet the owner’s project requirements.

The standard defines the commissioning process through 13 functional steps, each of which contains deliverables. The commissioning activities and deliverable are:

• Initiate commissioning process, including defining roles and responsibilities;
• Define project requirements, which results in the owner’s project requirements document;
• Develop commissioning plan, including a written commissioning process plan;
• Plan design approach to the owner’s project requirements, which defines the basis of design;
• Set contractor commissioning requirements, which are included in the commissioning specifications;
• Design review by the commissioning authority provides feedback and a design review report;
• Submittals review verifies compliance with the owner’s project requirements in a submittal review report;
• Observation and testing verifies system performance, with results documented in construction checklists and reports;
• Issues resolution coordination is done with an issues and resolution log;
• Systems manual assembly results in a systems manual for building operation;
• Conduct training for building operations with training plans and records;
• Post-occupancy operation commissioning provides an end of warranty commissioning report; and
• Assembly of a commissioning report captures all the project commissioning documentation.