Building Commissioning & Energy Monitoring
Today’s buildings are a complex mix of sophisticated control systems and legacy equipment, where even small problems can have big impacts. Plus, there’s often a disconnect between the energy modeling done in isolated, one-time re-commissioning or energy audit projects, and what really happens in day-to-day building operations.
What’s needed is a systematic approach to tracking energy utilization that helps detect problems early, before they lead to tenant comfort complaints, high energy costs, or unexpected equipment failure.
That’s why energy monitoring and management technology is now at the forefront for a wide range of energy management projects, providing the information and insight required to discern energy savings opportunities and optimize building operations.
What is Re-Commissioning, RCx, EBCx and MBCx? How do they relate?
- Re-commissioning is a systematic process for investigating, analyzing and optimizing the performance of building systems to meet the owner’s current facility requirements. Re-commissioning projects are periodic audits and the key deliverable is improved operations and maintenance (O&M) procedures to enhance building performance. RCx is re-commissioning for buildings that were never commissioned during the construction process.
- Existing Buildings Commissioning (EBCx) goes beyond RCx or energy audits to make building systems perform interactively. The goal is to avoid the key problem with retro-commissioning – savings can degrade over time. Increasingly, EBx projects incorporate monitoring-based commissioning to ensure benefits persist into future building operations.
- Monitoring-based Commissioning (MBCx) uses retro-commissioning techniques, but also features installation of extensive, persistent monitoring for on-going diagnostics. This preserves long-term savings potential, and at the same time, improves system reliability and comfort as building conditions change. A recent Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study revealed that MBCx is “a highly cost-effective means of obtaining significant energy savings across a variety of building types.” MBCx is the surest way to ensure that energy efficiency gains do not degrade over time.
Each of these commissioning measures can help buildings earn points toward LEED-EB certification.
How does Agilewaves’ technology apply?
Agilewaves’ Building Optimization System™ (BOS) is a turnkey system which provides the building performance measurement foundation for commissioning projects. It includes a monitoring network, trend analysis tools and alerts to help building operators fine-tune operations on an on-going basis.
- Agilewaves provides a robust foundation for MBCx since we provide the rigorous and on-going metrics for continuous performance improvements. Once an accurate baseline is set, then deviations highlight opportunities for operational improvements or equipment repairs.
- BCx projects often start with energy-use data collection, and since the Agilewaves system can be quickly installed to collect data at the circuit level, it can also be a key tool at a project’s start.
- As part of a re-commissioning project, the Agilewaves system can be used to verify results, and set baseline measurements for the project hand-off phase.
- Agilewaves satisfies the new energy monitoring requirements in LEEDv3.
Agilewaves is also often deployed as part of a building retrofit project to verify the effectiveness of new investments in lighting or HVAC upgrades. In some instances, solar projects need to be monitored to ensure they are functioning as designed and optimized to realize energy savings forecasts.
For all – extensive, discrete measurements are the essential building blocks to achieve and maintain energy efficiency gains. Agilewaves provides a flexible, scalable measurement foundation for the entire range of commissioning projects.
How exactly does that work?
Agilewaves’ Building Optimization System™ (BOS) is a web-based system for actively monitoring and managing electric, gas and water usage in real time. Facility owners and managers can easily display critical building information, track performance, manage and control resource consumption, and trim costs.
Sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, key components of BOS include:
- Sensor Network
Standard sensors and existing building systems collect data from multiple endpoints and deliver it via common wired and wireless protocols. BOS integrates your existing and future infrastructure investments using industry standard communications protocols. It is designed for rapid installation and does not disrupt building services or tenants. - Measurement Database and Optimization Software
Provides secure, long-term storage through a robust data architecture, and a hosted server manipulates and securely stores the data for years, providing useful, globally-accessible information without requiring the customer to maintain or support another IT system. - Tailored Information & Alerts, Anytime, Anywhere
Multiple display devices and tailored user interface options provide the right information to the right users, in meaningful, actionable formats. Thresholds can be set for key building systems with alerts sent to mobile devices, email or control systems.
Commissioning for LEED: How can Agilewaves help you meet LEED requirements?
Agilewaves can be essential to your sustainability initiatives, by providing an advanced building measurement foundation – one that supplies the rigorous metrics required by LEED-EB, and more.
Want to know more about how Agilewaves applies to your current project?
Contact us now for a private demonstration and project review.
Download the LEED-EB details.
Download the Building Commissioning details.
Additional Information
Sustainability, LEED and Energy Monitoring
Net-Zero Energy Buildings
Key Resources
California Commissioning Guide: Existing Buildings
Recommissioning Guide for Building Owners (PECI, 2007)
Best Practices in Commissioning Existing Buildings (Building Commissioning Association)
Monitoring-based Commissioning,: Benchmarking Analysis (LBNL, 2009)
