Your building was designed to perform a certain way. But is it actually performing that way? Building commissioning is the process of verifying that your building’s systems are installed correctly and operating as intended. If they are not, commissioning identifies what is wrong and gets it fixed.
Types of commissioning
New construction commissioning happens during and immediately after construction. The goal is to verify that all mechanical, electrical, and controls systems work as designed before the building is handed over. This catches installation errors, controls sequences that were not programmed correctly, and equipment that is not performing to spec.
Retro-commissioning is the same process applied to an existing building that was never formally commissioned, or one where systems have drifted from their original design intent over time. Most buildings fall into this category. Equipment gets modified, controls get overridden, and over the years the building ends up operating in ways nobody planned.
Ongoing commissioning is a continuous process of monitoring and optimizing building systems after initial commissioning. Rather than a one-time fix, it keeps your building performing well year after year.
Why buildings drift from design intent
It happens gradually. A tenant complains about temperature, so a technician overrides a control setpoint. A piece of equipment fails and the replacement is not configured the same way. An energy management system alarm gets silenced because it was going off too often. Seasonal changeover procedures get skipped.
Over time, these small changes accumulate. The building is running, but it is running inefficiently. Energy costs creep up, comfort complaints increase, and nobody can point to a single cause.
What commissioning finds
In our experience, common findings during retro-commissioning include:
- HVAC systems heating and cooling simultaneously
- Economizer dampers stuck in one position
- Variable frequency drives running at fixed speeds
- Lighting schedules that do not match actual occupancy
- Controls sequences that were overridden and never restored
- Equipment running during unoccupied hours
These are not hypothetical examples. We find issues like these regularly, and each one represents wasted energy and money.
The financial case
Retro-commissioning typically delivers energy savings of 10 to 20 percent, with payback periods of 1 to 3 years. For a building spending $500,000 per year on energy, that could mean $50,000 to $100,000 in annual savings.
Beyond energy savings, commissioning improves occupant comfort, extends equipment life, and reduces maintenance costs. It also provides documentation that can support benchmarking compliance, BEPS performance targets, and tenant satisfaction.
How we approach commissioning
At Alert Energy, we start with data. We review your BAS trends, utility data, and maintenance history before we set foot in the building. This lets us focus our on-site work on the areas where we are most likely to find issues.
We then work with your operations team to identify deficiencies, test performance, and implement fixes. After the initial commissioning, we can provide ongoing monitoring to make sure the improvements stick.