Workshop on Commissioning of New and Existing Buildings

The General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings and the Alliance to Save Energy, with co-sponsorship of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), held a one-day workshop on building commissioning on May 21, 2010 in Washington, DC.

Objectives

Conduct a one-day workshop for staff at government agencies who work in the area of building construction and renovation. Through industry expertise and peers from the private sector, provide information on implementing a standard process for commissioning of new and existing buildings, and a forum to discuss barriers and solutions specific to the operations of these agencies. The workshop will address the following objectives:

• Standardize the commissioning process for new and existing government buildings – Of the new construction and renovation projects underway through government agencies, many receive some form of commissioning; however, there is a need to improve uniformity and consistency in process and quality.
• Leverage existing resources/expertise – There are many existing commissioning resources that exist among individual government agencies – these need to be publicized and utilized in building projects to avoid “recreating the wheel” (see list of resources below); In addition, learn from the successes among the public sector regarding value proposition, financing, resources, etc.
• Resolve government agencies barriers – Government agencies face barriers to commissioning which are unique. While the value proposition, process, and resources have been largely “built” for the private sector, the public sector must resolve issues that include bidding/contracting requirements, long-term building performance, data collection, and others.

Agenda

9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Facilitated Agenda and Discussion

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.: Registration

9:30 a.m.: Opening/Welcome – Kevin Kampschroer, Director, Office of High-Performance Green Buildings, General Services Administration

• GSA’s view on the gaps in Cx practice and his expectations for the workshop

9:40 a.m.:

• Workshop Overview – Phil Welker (facilitator – PECI), Lia Webster (PECI)
  • Commissioning Resources Handout
  • Agenda and progression of the presentations/discussions
  • Goals for the day (include achieving a state of ongoing commissioning)
  • Our working definition of Cx
• Perspectives on Cx from Private Owners/Operators – Warren Whitehead (CB Richard Ellis), Mike Deane (Turner Construction), Dan Pugliese (Hines) & Mark Miller (Strategic Building Solutions)
  • Current activity
  • Strategies & resources that have made projects successful
    • Information, tools, guides, groups
    • Certifications
• Perspectives on Cx from Public Sector Experiences – Karl Brown (Univ. of Calif.—Calif. Inst. for Energy and the Environment), Emmillee Hogan (Liberty Engineering)
  • Long-term energy savings through better operations and management
  • Reduced cost and effort per project
  • Increased expertise among building operations staff
  • Potential to verify basic energy efficiency elements (per energy code)

11 a.m.: Morning break (15 minutes)

• Cx Research and Innovation – Phil Haves (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab), David Claridge (Texas A&M)
  • Making diagnostic and M&V tools more accessible
  • Using energy simulation in performance monitoring
  • Tracking building energy use data for commissioning persistence
  • Diagnostic HVAC faults with whole building energy use data
• Known Barriers – Ab Ream (Federal Energy Management Program), Don Juhasz (Defence Logistics Agency), John Park (Dept. of Veterans Affairs)
  • Certifications, Training, & Workforce development
  • Learning Management – maintaining knowledge with the job, not the person
  • Low-bid process/requirements
  • Lack of certification requirement for commissioning providers
  • Lack of incentive among building management companies
• Further Barriers – (Phil Welker/Group Discussion)

12:30 p.m. Working Lunch

12:45 p.m. “The Reality of Building Occupants”/ Vivian Loftness (Carnegie Mellon University)

1:30 p.m.

• Solutions and Strategies (Phil Welker/Group Discussion)
• Review key issues (15 minutes)
  • Summarize/ categorize barriers & issues identified during morning session
  • Rank and prioritize issues
• Working groups (45 minutes)
  • Break into 6 – 8 working groups and assign unique issue to each group
    • develop short-term and long term action plan
• Action Plans from Working groups (45 minutes)
  • report out for 5 minutes on top 4 recommended action items

Break (15 minutes)

• Summarize / categorize action items identified

Wrap-up (30 minutes)

• Present summarized / categorized action items identified
• Prioritize and rank short-term and long-term items
• Assemble working groups if appropriate
• Discuss Next steps

Potential resulting action items for multi-agency working group to:

• 1) assemble templates, documents, and otherwise put together a standard set of resources for government agencies;
• 2) select a certification standard, and guidance for hiring providers;

4:00 p.m. Adjourn