What Owners Need to Know about Commissioning Buildings 1 What Owners Need to Know about Commissioning Buildings

Millions of dollars are often spent in the construction of a new building. Advanced technologies for construction management, engineering design, and fabrication and installation are being applied to design and build buildings and manage the construction process. It is becoming standard for high-tech equipment, controls, and communications systems to be put into the building to provide power, lighting, comfort, communications, security, and life-safety protection. And some owners decide to go even further, expending the effort to make the building perform up to a green standard by the U.S. Green Buildings Council’s LEED rating system. Commissioning is a relatively new process in the buildings industry that helps ensure that new buildings are properly designed, constructed, and prepared for occupancy, operations, and maintenance. Existing buildings also can undergo a commissioning process called “retrocommissioning.” What is Commissioning? Commissioning involves investigations that yield findings towards improving building operations and maintenance and tuning up building systems so they use less energy wit