Continuous Commissioning Services
Achieve long-term efficiency while maximizing ROI for your building
Achieving a net zero building is not a one-time process. After initial energy efficient upgrades and installations are completed, performance issues can arise, impacting the building’s level of efficiency as well as the return on investment. This is where continuous commissioning services come into play.
DMA Engineering shares your commitment to achieving net-zero goals. We’re on a mission to build more resilient buildings – not just during construction, but throughout their lifespan. We achieve this through a combination of quality commissioning, energy expertise, and design services. And to ensure your building’s long-term performance and maximize its efficiency, we offer comprehensive continuous commissioning services.
What Is Continuous Commissioning?
For a new or existing building, commissioning and retro-commissioning services are like getting a building “in shape” for energy efficiency. They involve a one-time process of optimizing a building’s systems to work together for peak performance.
Continuous commissioning (also called ongoing commissioning) is like maintaining your building’s fitness. It’s a regular process that monitors and adjusts systems to ensure they continue to operate efficiently over time, preventing them from slipping back into less efficient patterns.
To ensure a building continues to meet energy-efficient standards, owners must employ a continuous commissioning process as opposed to a one-time project. This is because building systems naturally degrade over time as a result of use and maintenance issues. Continuous commissioning helps mitigate these issues by optimizing building performance using a regular process of system and component level analysis, fault detection and diagnostics.
The overall goal of continuous commissioning is to ensure a building operates at peak efficiency over its entire lifespan. This benefits building owners and has a more positive impact on building occupants and the environment.
Why Is Continuous Commissioning Needed?
Continuous commissioning services are vital to prolonged energy efficiency. After initial energy efficiency projects are completed, system degradation can lead to a drop in energy savings and higher operational costs.
Ongoing commissioning goes above and beyond traditional maintenance programs. Rather than ensuring systems simply continue to function as designed, ongoing commissioning seeks to improve operations for greater efficiency while meeting evolving energy efficiency requirements.
In other words, continuous commissioning works both as a fault detection process to identify and rectify current issues, but it also is about ongoing assessments to discover where further improvements can be made to reduce energy consumption.
Continuous commissioning becomes a safeguard for building owners who have invested in energy efficiency upgrades. It ensures those upgrades deliver on their promised savings, protects the investment, and optimizes building performance for the long term.
How Ongoing Commissioning Works
Keeping your building running at peak efficiency can be a challenge, especially with the current shortage of qualified building engineers. Even if you have an engineer on staff, managing multiple buildings often means less individual attention for each one.
This is where ongoing commissioning comes in. This process works seamlessly with your existing Building Automation System (BAS) and acts like a virtual building engineer, constantly monitoring your system remotely.
By continuously analyzing data and identifying areas for improvement, ongoing commissioning ensures your building operates at its best, saving you money on energy costs and extending the lifespan of your equipment.
The three primary components that make up the ongoing commissioning process are:
- Assessing and analyzing building data
- Implementing changes and repairs
- Continuous monitoring
DMA Engineering approaches this process holistically by evaluating the building’s current level of function and determining the necessary changes or fixes needed to achieve optimal building operation. This approach reduces unnecessary maintenance, increases energy efficiency and subsequently lowers energy costs. This involves:
Implementing cloud-based software strategies that can continuously monitor key variables.
Using algorithms ensures that your building is operating healthfully and efficiently.
Employing IoT devices to monitor new parameters, such as building temperature, electricity usage, and water flow.
Utilizing data collection to optimize building operations and be kept aware of changing conditions as they happen.
- Simultaneous heating and cooling
- Demand Control Ventilation (DCV) malfunction
- Equipment not following occupied and unoccupied schedules or inaccurate building schedules
- Inefficient air handler operation due to abnormal environmental conditions
- A2L refrigerant systems for sub-optimal operation and non-compliance
- Economizer faults
- Identifying skills gap and enabling remote building engineering support
- Unidentified operational state for equipment
- Verification of sequence of operations today, tomorrow and the future
Achieving a successful continuous commissioning process requires a powerful tool, that’s why DMA Engineering’s product of choice is SkySpark. SkySpark is known for its cutting-edge analytics technology which includes a comprehensive suite of energy analysis tools that looks at all of the data across all phases of the analysis process, from data collection to visualization and reporting.
Unlocking Building Automation System Insights: A SkySpark Tutorial by DMA Engineering
Continuous Commissioning Case Study Highlights
Nederland Town Shop
DMA Engineering was brought into the design team to provide sustainable solutions to the project. The Owner’s Project Requirement, (OPR) had the goal that the new town shop be net-zero or as close to net-zero as the budget allowed. The town’s current town shop was close to being condemned and a new town shop was needed.
Studio Arts Boulder
DMA participated in a 100,000 square foot medical office building controls and HVAV upgrade. The deliverable was a report proposing three energy conservation measures. Based on capital expenditures and reduced operating costs, the client chose a measure that fit their needs and also achieved energy efficiency. The client was able to obtain CPACE financing to assist with the initial financial costs of this project.
DMA was able to provide the unique advantage of participating in a team environment working with a mechanical contractor and financial investment firm to determine the proper mix of expenditure and savings to create a viable end solution. This project entailed updating HVAC and control upgrades. Our cost estimates were vital for our clients selection process for selecting their final solution.
#2 Inverness
This 50,000 square foot office building, split equally into two levels, was built in the late ’70s and still had the original heating, cooling and ventilation equipment. The rooftop units were starting to have compressor failures and used a refrigerant that was being phased out of use. The building owners were looking at a significant capital outlay and determined that the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program would give them access to the capital needed to replace the rooftop units while also implementing additional energy conservation measures.
In addition to the required ASHRAE, Level III Energy Audit for C-PACE we participated with the building owners in deciphering five energy conservation measures that could be configured into multiple energy conservation scenarios. Our participation included producing a written report outlining the results of the energy audit, a preliminary budget, and a comprehensive payback analysis. The report contained charts and graphs breaking down the information into a readable and understandable format for non-industry building owners. We met with the owners, went through the report, and then assisted them in deciding on the energy conservation measures to be implemented.
Various Luxury Residential Projects
At DMA Engineering, we understand the unique needs of luxury residential projects. These high-performance buildings demand exceptional comfort and cutting-edge technology, all while maintaining superior energy efficiency. Our ongoing commissioning services ensure your luxury residence achieves and sustains its ambitious energy goals. We meticulously monitor and fine-tune building systems, identifying and correcting minor issues before they become larger problems. This proactive approach maximizes occupant comfort, minimizes energy waste, and protects the value of your investment – all while contributing to a more sustainable future.
Key Benefits of Continuous Commissioning
Ongoing commissioning relies on sustainable maintenance and optimization practices through the use of fault detection and diagnostic technologies to reduce costs, improve energy efficiency, and extend the life cycle of building systems.
Cost Savings
Continuous commissioning creates a cost-saving cycle. It ensures the energy savings from your initial efficiency upgrades are maximized and sustained over time, identifies opportunities for further optimization, and reduces the need for future costly repairs and replacements. This translates to significant cost savings throughout the lifetime of your building systems.
Extended System Life Cycles
When building systems malfunction and fail to perform as designed, they degrade over time and become less efficient. This often leads to more frequent maintenance issues over time that cut the life of the system short. However, with continuous commissioning, analytics tools enable predictive maintenance, which helps to detect faults before they occur. This reduces wear and tear for extended equipment usage.
Improved Occupant Comfort
In essence, continuous commissioning doesn’t just benefit building owners; it creates a more comfortable, healthy, and productive environment for the people who occupy the space. This can lead to increased employee satisfaction, tenant retention, and a more positive overall building experience.
Areas Served for Ongoing Commissioning
Achieve greater savings and lasting energy efficiency with our industry-leading continuous commissioning services. We serve clients in numerous areas, including:
- Colorado: Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Fort Collins, Lakewood
- New Mexico: Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho
- Montana: Billings, Missoula, Great Falls
- Wyoming: Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie
- Washington: Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma
- And more
Get Started with DMA Engineering
At DMA Engineering, our mission is to benefit owners, occupants, and the environment by creating more resilient buildings.
Our passion for energy efficiency, technology, and innovative design helps us reimagine spaces for a brighter future. To learn more about our commissioning services, contact us today!