ATLANTA — A newly published standard focused on the commissioning process, ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 202, Commissioning Process for Buildings and Systems, identifies the minimum acceptable commissioning process for buildings and systems as described in ASHRAE’s Guideline 0-2005, The Commissioning Process. Standard 202 is ASHRAE’s first standard focused on the commissioning process. The commissioning process as detailed in the standard applies to all construction projects and systems and is an industry consensus document.

“Given the integration and interdependency of facility systems, a performance deficiency in one system can result in less than optimal performance by other systems,” said Gerald Kettler, P.E., chair of the committee that wrote the standard. “Implementing the commissioning process is intended to reduce the project capital cost through the warranty period and also reduce the life-cycle cost of the facility. Using this integrated process results in a fully functional, fine-tuned facility, with complete documentation of its systems and assemblies and trained operations and maintenance personnel.”

The commissioning process assumes that owners, designers, contractors, and operations and maintenance entities are fully accountable for the quality of their work. The process begins at project inception and continues for the life of a facility.

The process includes specific tasks to be conducted to verify that design, construction, verification, testing, documentation, and training meet the owner’s project requirements, noted Kettler.

The standard defines the commissioning process through 13 functional steps, each of which contains deliverables. The commissioning activities and deliverable are:

• Initiate the commissioning process, including defining roles and responsibilities.

• Define the project requirements, which results in the owner’s project requirements (OPR) document.

• Develop commissioning plan — produces a written commissioning process plan.

• Plan design approach to owner’s project requirements — defines the basis of design.

• Set contractor commissioning requirements, which are included in the commissioning specifications.

• Design review by the commissioning authority provides feedback and a design review report.

• Submittals review verifies compliance with the OPR in a submittal review report.

• Observation and testing verifies system performance with results documented in construction checklists and reports.

• Issues resolution coordination is done with an issues and resolution log.

• Systems manual assembly results in a systems manual for building operation.

• Conduct training for building operations with training plans and records.

• Post-occupancy operation commissioning provides an end of warranty commissioning report.

• Assembly of a commissioning report captures all the project commissioning documentation.

The cost of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 202-2013, Commissioning Process for Buildings and Systems, is $72 ($61, ASHRAE members). To order, contact the ASHRAE Customer Contact Center at 800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), fax 678-539-2129, or visit www.ashrae.org/bookstore.

Publication date: 10/7/2013

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