The March 2013 technical session was organized by the Building Commissioning Association (BCA) Eastern Canadian Chapter  and the ASHRAE Toronto Chapter.  It featured six seminars about Commissioning Services:    

Mike Loughry, P.Eng. LEED AP, of HH Angus Consulting Engineers, defined the commissioning process and how to purchase commissioning services.  He stressed the importance of defining the scope of the commissioning services to reduce uncertainty.     

Edward Trueman, P. Eng., LEED AP BD + C. of CFMS Consulting Inc. discussed LEED requirements, focusing on Energy & Atmosphere (EA) Prerequisite EAp1 (Fundamental Commissioning of Building Energy Systems); and Credit EAc3 (Enhanced Commissioning).

Steven Taylor, QCxP, of HRCx Building Services started his career as a marine engineer.  Mr. Taylor shared his experience with Existing Building Commissioning, including which areas yield the most savings.  The Lawrence Berkley study found that Existing Building Commissioning could save 9.6 billion dollars per year in the USA.  

Derek Cheung, P.Eng. CMVP, of Isotherm Engineering Ltd. covered the most important industry commissioning standards, such as CSA Z320 and Z318, as well as ASHRAE Standard 202, which will be released later this year.   ASHRAE 202 will contain highly detailed informative appendices.  

Jennifer Hogan, B. Arch. Sci., RRO, LEED AP O+M of Pretium Anderson Building Engineers, described the basics of building enclosure commissioning.  ASHRAE considers any space that needs environmental separation as an enclosure, including interior spaces.  A proper enclosure prevents disruption to the HVAC system design and loss of energy from leaks.  

David Overton LEED AP BD+C of Stantec Consulting discussed the different providers of commissioning accreditation.  ASHRAE offers Certified Process Management Professional (CPMP).  BCA offers Certified or Associate Commissioning Professional status (CCP and ACP).  Soon BCA will be offering Certified Commissioning Firm. 

New Building Commissioning is rapidly becoming an integral part of most building construction projects. It provides owners with confidence that the building systems are performing as intended. Existing Building Commissioning has proven to provide substantial operating savings. The commissioning process in general ensures the operators are trained in the safe and efficient operation of the building system. This set of seminars was historic because it was the very first public event organized by the BCA Eastern Canadian Chapter.  Judging from attendance and the level of enthusiasm, it was a big success.

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The March 2013 dinner meeting featured a presentation about Mission Critical Commissioning.  The presenters were Craig Sievenpiper, P.Eng. MBA, LEED AP, and John de Sousa, P. Eng., both principals of HH Angus & Associates.  Mr. Sievenpiper has been in the Technology Division of HH Angus for fifteen years and focuses on commissioning.  Mr. de Sousa, an electrical engineer, started as a Project Analyst at IBM Canada Ltd, and has also spent the past 15 years at HH Angus.

Mission Critical sites are facilities for which the cost of even temporary failure is high.  These sites include telecommunication facilities; financial data centres; air traffic control centres; bio-containment (CL4) laboratories; and military defense centres.  Some examples of the serious consequences of even temporary failure of these sites are the unavailability of 911 services; the inability to process millions of credit card transactions; and the loss of millions of dollars in a single day.  

The Mission Critical commissioning process is more rigid and complex in order to minimize risk.   More complex and redundant systems design; many more functional and reliability tests; a higher witness rate; and testing maintenance scenarios that allow continuous operations are required.  Future expansion scenarios are tested as well.  The HH Angus team use additional commissioning guidelines and standards from The Uptime Institute, and 7x24Exchange.  

For mission critical equipment, factory witness tests are important; the equipment should not leave the factory unless it is perfect.    During installation of equipment and start-up, forms should be carefully completed so as to reflect reality; assumptions are not acceptable.  Generic forms should be avoided.  Because transportation, site weather conditions and handling could have changed the equipment, all elements of equipment capabilities should retested on site, to ensure it continues to function as expected.   

The Individual System Test (IST) involves testing with all the elements of the system in place and running constantly for weeks: generator, emergency switchboard, cooling tower, chiller, computer room air conditioners (CRACs), pumps, AHU etc.  Every sequence of operation should be run through.  Initially load banks will be used to simulate servers and to prove out the capabilities of CRACs and redundancies.  Testing at the rack level and proving out CFD can follow.  

The next stage is the Integrated System Operation Test.  This test includes PTP Pull the plug, and Black Start, which is starting the facility from complete failure.  The final stage involves reviewing set points, operating conditions, sequences and monitoring systems with Operations staff.  

Mr. de Sousa, Mr. Sievenpiper, and the HH Angus team believe in understanding your client's needs; getting the commissioning agent involved early; and in effective communication between all those involved: client, contractors, engineers, commissioning agents, utilities staff, and operators.  They also believe that an understanding of Mission Critical commissioning will result in a better Request for Proposal, and ultimately a better building.  
 

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Dates Are Set: Am Fri Aug 23 To Noon Sun Aug 25, 2013

Venue: The Fairmont Royal York

We are looking for Chapter Members support in helping us run a successful CRC. We are looking for volunteers to help out with: