“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.