Retro Commissioning
What is Retro Commissioning?
Retro-commissioning is the process of commissioning an existing building controls to regain efficiency. This would involve fine-tuning the programming of the building controls.
Typical Problems in an Old Building
As a building ages, there are many minor issues accumulate over the years, such as
01
Equipment Replacement
02
Hidden Manual Override
03
Changing users occupancy patterns
04
Aging of existing equipment
These issues imply that the original design commissioned becomes less efficient, yet our company sees new opportunities here.
Energy Saving Opportunities
Many energy saving opportunities that would require no additional capital expenses, for example (Source: EMSD HK):
01
Chilled Water Flow adjustment during low load
02
Chilled Water Temperature Reset during low load
03
VAV temperature setpoint review
04
Chiller sequencing based on part-load performance
05
Cooling Tower sequencing
06
Schedule and timer reprogram in BMS
Many energy saving opportunities that would require no additional capital expenses, for example (Source: EMSD HK):
Continuous Commissioning
Since equipment replacement, maintenance and usage pattern change over time, constant retro-commissioning is necessary for more efficient use of energy.
Continuous commissioning is the process of performing on-going retro commissioning. This is made possible by gathering data continuously from the running system and an associated analytics platform for revealing the energy saving opportunities.
01
Proactive predictive maintenance of potential issues
02
Maintain the energy saving from the initial retro commissioning
03
Data stream gathered would allow more advanced control methodologies
The energy saving from a retro commissioning exercise varies with buildings based on their existing controls, with a typical payback period of 2 years.