New-construction Building Commissioning

New-construction Building Commissioning

Building commissioning (short form Cx) is the process of verifying, in new construction, all (or some, depending on scope) of the subsystems for Mechanical(HVAC), plumbing, electrical, fire/life safety, building envelopes, interior systems (example laboratory units), cogeneration, utility plants, sustainable systems, lighting, wastewater, controls, and building security to achieve the owner's project requirements as intended by the building owner and as designed by the building architects and engineers. Recommissioning is the methodical process of testing and adjusting the aforementioned systems in existing buildings.

Building commissioning is a quality-focused process necessary for both non-complex and complex modern construction projects. Normally the initial commissioning team and a team leader (typically known as the commissioning authority or CA) is involved from project initiation through one year of occupancy. In many cases and ideally, there is an on-going building enhancing and commissioning program and team for the life of the building. While the service methodology can vary from owner to owner and project to project, the basic formula for a successful building commissioning process involves a synergy team from pre-design to develop the owner's project requirements (OPR), commissioning scope and plan, including benchmarks for success, review of design documents and checklists for achieving the Owner's Project Requirements (OPR), development of checklists and verifying a sample of construction checklists and submittals, developing training needs and evaluating training delivered by the contractors, witnessing and verifying construction phase tests, and periodic site observations during the construction phase, and performing commissioning functional testing as the project nears completion. While the practice of building commissioning process is still fairly new in the construction industry, it has quickly become common practice as building owners and developers try to get more out of their investment. The commissioning process main goal is to improve a project from the design phase through post construction and occupancy.