“Commissioning” is a structured and documented process to verify that various systems operate as intended and designed. Commissioning is based on the owner’s design intent, the engineer’s design, equipment specifications, installation guidelines, and operations and maintenance manuals. Typically this is all new and accurate information.

Retro-Commissioning is similar to Commissioning but Retro-Commissioning focuses on existing buildings rather than new buildings or systems. This is a significant difference because typically the owner’s design intent, the engineer’s design, equipment specifications, installation guidelines, and operations and maintenance manuals are not available. If some of these documents are available, the use patterns of the building are likely to have changed over time, so the document pertaining to the original construction may no longer be correct. As a result, the challenge of Retro Commissioning is to first identify and quantify the current operation of the building and to determine the extent that the current use of the building is met by the mechanical systems within the building.

This “discovery” element of Retro Commissioning requires an additional and different set of qualifications and skills than new building Commissioning. Commissioning activities are very much canned and by-the-book review and verification of existing documentation. Retro commissioning activities require a higher level of experience and understanding of buildings and systems and the ability to identify and judge the interaction of the two.

EE&D’s high success rate with Retro Commissioning is based on experience with current energy savings strategies and also relies on years of experience in design and installation of systems in existing buildings. This experience gives us an unparalleled ability to search out potential problems and develop imaginative solutions.

The Measurement and Verification (M&V) of the performance of mechanical systems is a fundamental element in Performance Contracting, LEED Certification and Commissioning and Retro-Commissioning. If performance is not measured, there is no way of knowing how a building is performing or how much the performance has improved after work has been done. EE&D has extensive experience in M&V in many types of environments. As a subcontractor to the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), EE&D was part of the M&V working group to develop a standard M&V Plan format for Energy Savings Performance Contract projects at Federal facilities. The result of this work was the publication of the M&V Guidelines for Federal Projects.

An Energy Audit is a survey of the systems in a building to determine what things can be done to reduce the energy use of a building. The Energy Audit can vary in scope from a brief inspection of the building systems and utility bills, to a full detailed evaluation of all systems and their performance and the development of the conceptual design, installation costs and energy cost savings associated with the discovered improvements.

With the newer generation of web accessible building management and control systems it has become more common, and very beneficial for building operations to be reviewed on a regular basis by an outside energy engineering professional who is familiar with the design intent of the systems in the building. EE&D can provide this monitoring and send a report on a quarterly basis that shows what system functions are not operating as they should.

Another key element to achieving high performance of a building is proper training of the operations staff in equipment capabilities, design intent and operations and maintenance requirements. Frequently, new sophisticated systems are designed, installed, and turned over to the operations staff with only brief training. Typically, the result is that the operations staff operate the system the same way they operated the old system thereby reducing the energy savings of the new system. Proper training includes repeated training sessions, clear and organized documentation, and follow-up question and answer sessions as the operators become more familiar with the systems.

EE&D Inc. provides infrared thermal scans to our clients in order to pinpoint areas of heat loss.  The thermal scan clearly identifies the location and amount of heat loss in building envelopes.

As you can see in the picture below, the thermal scan shows the heat loss through a building wall section joint, which helps easily identify problems in the building envelope.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a Green Building rating system developed by the US Green Building Council. LEED certification requires an independent, third-party verification that a building project meets the highest green building and performance measures. Mr. Ward is a LEED Accredited Professional, and was successful in getting the first LEED certification for a building in Rhode Island, a LEED Silver Certification, and is currently working on the second.

The Measurement and Verification (M&V) of a building or systems performance is a fundamental element in Performance Contracting, LEED Certification and Commissioning and Retro-Commissioning. If performance is not measured, there is no way of knowing how a building is performing now, and how much the performance has improved after work has been done. EE&D has extensive experience in M&V in many types of environments. As a subcontractor to the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), EE&D was part of the M&V working group to evaluate the effectiveness of past M&V plans for Energy Savings Performance Contract projects at Federal facilities and provide guidance regarding the selection of a Measurement and Verification format for each specific measure. One of the results of this work was the publication of the M&V Guidelines for Federal Projects.

EE&D’s experience in all phases of energy savings projects including; product selection, system design, installation, service, construction management, commissioning, and Measurement and Verification (M&V) provide a solid background to evaluate the technical aspects of proposed projects. This includes a determination of the engineering aspects as well as the operational and maintenance aspects. Some very cleverly designed projects are not quite as attractive when evaluated from the long term operations and maintenance perspective.

Performance contracting is a method of purchasing new, energy efficient equipment and paying for it out of the energy savings generated by the new equipment. The Performance Contracting mechanism has been around in various forms for about 20 years. The Federal Government has been utilizing the Performance Contracting financing mechanism since 1998. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/financing/superespcs.html).

Many State and municipal governments have also started utilizing this mechanism as other funding sources become more limited and capital improvements become more necessary. Mr. Ward has over 15 years experience developing and implementing Performance Contracting Projects with a combined value of over $118 million.

The development and implementation of Energy Saving Performance Contracts (ESPCs) has evolved into a very complex process. Tasks include; vendor selection, contract development, discovery of opportunity, selective application of technologies, engineering and financial analysis, construction, commissioning, measurement and verification of performance, training, and ongoing persistence evaluations. EE&D’s experience in all of these areas provides clients with the capability to achieve a high level of success when implementing ESPC projects. EE&D can provide an unbiased, third party analysis of the feasibility of energy savings projects, prior to your decision to invest.

EE&D, Inc is currently on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Preferred Vendors list to provide Performance Contracting Program Consultation. More information and details are available on the Operational Services Division website at: HYPERLINK “http://www.mass.gov/osd” www.mass.gov/osd.