Principles of Building Commissioning

Book excerpt: 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.