AABC Board Member and Vice President Josh Green, TBE, Environmental Test & Balance Co., and EMA Board President and ACG Member Chris Smith, CxA, EMP, Jacobs Engineering have published “Improving Long-Term Energy Efficiency with Commissioning” with FacilitiesNet.
The challenges of facility management and ownership are just beginning when a facility is built and turned over for operations. Throughout the life of the facility, it is not unusual for more than two-thirds of the overall cost of a facility to be embodied in the operations & maintenance costs. Energy is usually a large component of these costs. Additionally, many facilities experience changes in operational profiles through updates to uses, requirements for renovations, evolving technologies, and renewed focus on energy and sustainability. To address and understand the condition and operation of their facilities, owners often turn to consultants to perform a facility condition assessment (FCA). To maximize the potential for owners to receive the largest benefit for their facilities, the scope of services for facility condition assessment should be expanded to incorporate energy, commissioning (Cx), and test & balance (TAB) perspectives.
A facility condition assessment (FCA) is usually focused on a static review of the condition of the facility and individual components in terms of age, design, construction, methods, and materials. An FCA will obtain building data including deferred maintenance and deficiencies and engage the facility operations staff for input. All systems including the building envelope are usually considered and the current condition of assets are identified. The results from the FCA will provide asset classification and remaining life estimates supporting deferred maintenance planning and replacement information based on “like-for-like” which support continued facility operations. An FCA is based on a static physical analysis and provides limited performance data and does not address the operational performance or energy performance of the facility systems.
This article is an extension of a November 2021 APPA Webinar presented by Green and Smith where they discussed the approach and key components in developing facilities’ condition assessments associated with buildings’ mechanical / electrical systems; integrating facility assessments and associated budgeting with owners’ strategic energy, sustainability and resiliency goals, creating priorities for project implementation based upon weighted factors from the assessments and goals; measurement and verification strategies in assessing the effectiveness of projects, with respect to improvement in the building stock and advancement of various energy and sustainability goals.
You can read the full article here.
