Principles of Building Commissioning - Hardcover

Grondzik, Walter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470112972 ISBN 13: 9780470112977

Verlag: Wiley, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

Commissioning is coming of age.

Savvy building owners have adopted commissioning as an effective way to improve the facility acquisition process. Green building initiatives have embraced commissioning as a way of assuring quality in the delivery of high-performance buildings. This long-established quality control process for building mechanical systems is emerging as a broader construction management tool improving nearly all aspects of a project.

What exactly is this thing called commissioning? Principles of Building Commissioning answers this fundamental question with the first all-inclusive, practical guide to the application of the principles of commissioning. The book clarifies the underlying philosophy of commissioning: the why, what, when, and who of this process. Shaped by the ASHRAE Guideline 0 view of the world of commissioning, Building Commissioning:

• Maps out the territory of commissioning

• Outlines its defining characteristics

• Explains its flow of processes

• Demystifies its documentation

Making the fundamentals of commissioning accessible to all parties―building owners and operators, architects and engineers, users and suppliers―who may be called upon to join the commissioning team for a particular project, Building Commissioning serves as the professional's road map to the commissioning process, from the predesign phase through occupancy.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Walter T. Grondzik, PE, LEED-AP, is a professor in the School of Architecture, Ball State University. He has served as president of the Architectural Research Centers Consortium and the Society of Building Science Educators, and is a Fellow of ASHRAE and a member of several ASHRAE technical and guideline committees.

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incorporate commissioning into the building acquisition process

Commissioning is coming of age.

Savvy building owners have adopted commissioning as an effective way to improve the facility acquisition process. Green building initiatives have embraced commissioning as a way of assuring quality in the delivery of high-performance buildings. This long-established quality control process for building mechanical systems is emerging as a broader construction management tool improving nearly all aspects of a project.

What exactly is this thing called commissioning? Principles of Building Commissioning answers this fundamental question with the first all-inclusive, practical guide to the application of the principles of commissioning. The book clarifies the underlying philosophy of commissioning: the why, what, when, and who of this process. Shaped by the ASHRAE Guideline 0 view of the world of commissioning, Building Commissioning:

• Maps out the territory of commissioning

• Outlines its defining characteristics

• Explains its flow of processes

• Demystifies its documentation

Making the fundamentals of commissioning accessible to all parties building owners and operators, architects and engineers, users and suppliers who may be called upon to join the commissioning team for a particular project, Building Commissioning serves as the professional's road map to the commissioning process, from the predesign phase through occupancy.

Aus dem Klappentext

incorporate commissioning into the building acquisition process

Commissioning is coming of age.

Savvy building owners have adopted commissioning as an effective way to improve the facility acquisition process. Green building initiatives have embraced commissioning as a way of assuring quality in the delivery of high-performance buildings. This long-established quality control process for building mechanical systems is emerging as a broader construction management tool improving nearly all aspects of a project.

What exactly is this thing called commissioning? Principles of Building Commissioning answers this fundamental question with the first all-inclusive, practical guide to the application of the principles of commissioning. The book clarifies the underlying philosophy of commissioning: the why, what, when, and who of this process. Shaped by the ASHRAE Guideline 0 view of the world of commissioning, Building Commissioning:

• Maps out the territory of commissioning

• Outlines its defining characteristics

• Explains its flow of processes

• Demystifies its documentation

Making the fundamentals of commissioning accessible to all parties—building owners and operators, architects and engineers, users and suppliers—who may be called upon to join the commissioning team for a particular project, Building Commissioning serves as the professional's road map to the commissioning process, from the predesign phase through occupancy.

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Principles of Building Commissioning

By Walter T. Grondzik

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2006 Walter T. Grondzik
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-11297-7

Chapter One

What Is Commissioning?

BUILDING COMMISSIONING

Building commissioning is simply a means of ensuring that a building owner gets the quality of facility that is expected and deserved. The word simply is, however, deceiving. Although the concept of commissioning is straightforward, the building commissioning process can be complex, involve numerous and continually changing players, and span the full life of the building delivery process. The purpose of this book is to describe the principles behind building commissioning and to present commissioning practices that have proven successful.

Although it may seem ridiculous to suggest that building owners are consistently not getting what they want (and often not even what they have paid for), evidence repeatedly and overwhelmingly proves otherwise. Examinations of just-occupied buildings-of all types, in many states and countries, with a variety of design/delivery systems-repeatedly reveal equipment and assemblies that are installed improperly (or were not even installed), equipment and systems that do not (and often cannot) work properly, and situations that increase energy costs, decrease building operational life, and sometimes imperil occupant health and well being.

This should not be surprising, in that the typical building is a one-off creation. Components and parts are assembled in ways that have generally been tried before, but are nonetheless specifically unique. Even if the combinations of elements are not unique, the assemblers and assembly conditions often are. That is the precise purpose of the conventional design/construction process-to meet defined needs in the context of a unique site, timeline, and budget. There should be no serious expectation that a building created in this manner would work flawlessly on occupancy without some observation, testing, and tweaking of systems and assemblies. Nevertheless, owner after owner somehow expects his/her building to work well by initiating a process that does not include insightful review, testing, and adjusting. This is silly.

Extended warranties are one of the most common accessories purchased by automobile buyers. An extended warranty is essentially an insurance policy that helps ensure that the vehicle will work as expected and intended without unbudgeted and unjustified expense. This insurance is commonly and readily purchased for a mass-produced product that has undergone extensive testing and quality control procedures-and one that involves a fraction of the investment in a typical building.

Owners should view commissioning as the conceptual equivalent of an extended warranty for their buildings-remembering that these are buildings that are not mass-produced and often have seen little in the way of formal quality control. Carrying this analogy a step further, ongoing building commissioning is the equivalent of scheduled maintenance for a car; a way of avoiding unpleasant surprises that deprive an owner of effective use of his/her car (building) and/or require unplanned emergency repair and remediation costs.

The idea of the navy commissioning its ships is often used an example of building commissioning. This is partially true, with sea trials (the validation process) preceding "commissioning" (formal acceptance into the fleet). Quality control for shipbuilding is typically independent of (although related to) the performance validation activity. The movie image of ship commissioning is also more dramatic-"I don't care what the pressure gages say, Mr. Roberts, give me 35 knots now!"-than the typical building commissioning experience. Yet the idea is precisely the same; it makes infinitely more sense to detect problems or failure in a trial run conducted on your own terms than in a crisis (a battle, in the case of the ship, or a building occupied by 1,200 highly paid and previously productive professionals).

One way to view commissioning is to consider it as a partial step toward integrated practice. In an integrated practice, disciplinary boundaries and walls around project phases are broken down such that all participants are working seamlessly toward a common goal, without the communication gaps and suspicions that can arise from the conventional design-bid-build approach (Elvin 2007). The commissioning process, and more specifically, the commissioning team, can act as an effective project integrator during the transition to fully integrated practices.

THE BUILDING ACQUISITION PROCESS

As will be described in the next chapter, commissioning is a process that parallels and integrates with the conventional design-construct-occupy process for buildings. Although there are several important and common variations of this process, the conventional design-bid-build approach will be the basis for discussion in this book. The principal phases in this process are shown in Figure 1.1. These are the building acquisition phases identified by ASHRAE Guideline 0: The Commissioning Process (ASHRAE 2005).

The acquisition process for a new building consists of a sequenced series of activities intended to provide a facility that meets the owner's needs. During the predesign phase of the process, these needs are identified, honed, and documented. Historically, the result of this phase is an owner's program (or brief) that becomes the foundation for design efforts. Such a program may be developed solely by the owner, by the owner in cooperation with a programming specialist, or by the owner in conjunction with the design team. An incomplete or inaccurate program will lead to an incomplete or partially functional building. Incomplete programs may involve either missing spaces (too few offices or conference rooms) or incompletely defined spaces (classrooms without audiovisual capabilities, with no flexibility for evolving functions, and the like). Serious ambiguity regarding the intended quality of a space or facility is common in many owners' programs.

During the design phase, the design team (architects, engineers, and often specialists) attempts to convert the owner's program into plans and specifications (construction documents) for a facility that will reflect the needs and desires outlined in the program. Budget and schedule are often overriding constraints. The extent of communication between the owner and the design team during the design phase can vary greatly from project to project. The intent of this phase is to prepare contractually binding documents that can be successfully used to convert an idea into a physical reality. During the course of design development, thousands of decisions will be made based on hundreds of assumptions, calculations, and precedents. The design team's values and desires will be superimposed on those of the owner. Decisions made during design will affect both the constructability and operability of a facility.

During the construction phase, a contractor attempts to convert the construction documents into a physical entity. Although the contractor usually contracts with the owner, the contract is to execute the design team's documents. The owner is free to ask that changes to the drawings and specifications be made to accommodate second thoughts or evolving needs-but such changes typically come at a substantial cost in time and money. The contractor's values and desires will be superimposed on those of the owner (as...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Wiley
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0470112972
• ISBN 13: 9780470112977
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 144
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Wiley-VCH GmbH; product_safety@wiley.com; ; Boschstrasse 12; Weinheim; 69469; Deutschland