Commissioning: Danish Standard for The Commissioning Process in public review!

Commissioning af byggeri - opfind den dybe tallerken

Vi arbejder til daglig med at fylde det hul ud, der opstår mellem byggefasen og driftsfasen. Vores redskaber er workshops med bygherre / ejer, der hjælper med at sætte målbare krav til byggeriets ydeevne inden byggesagen går i gang. Vi fører dialog med byggesagens parter for at få input til checklister og kontrolplaner. Dette, sammen med helhedsorienterede tests giver en helhedsorienteret kvalitetssikringsproces, der validerer ejerens krav gennem hele byggeprocessen.
Vores "bibel" er DS 3090, Commissioning-processen til bygninger.

Den kritiske bygherre kan naturligvis spørge:

- Har jeg ikke allerede betalt for det?

Svaret på dette spørgsmål er både ja og nej.

Ja, fordi der sikkert er en pasus i hver underleverandøraftale om, at underleverandøren skal indregulere, teste og verificere sin leverance.

Nej, dels fordi en hoved- eller totalentreprenør typisk ingen kvalifikationer har til at kvalitetssikre dette arbejde, dels fordi der intet står om underentreprenørens anlægs formåen i en helhed med andre underentreprenørers leverancer.
Populært sagt har en bygherre krav på, at komponenter er kvalitetssikret, men der står ingenting om systemer, der består af mange komponenter og leverancer.

Derfor kan vi sige, at vi opfinder den dybe tallerken igen ved at fokusere på de kontraktlige forpligtelser, der allerede er i byggeprocessen. Derpå drejer og justerer vi disse forpligtelser, indtil de målrettet kan bruges til at dokumentere, at brugerens samlede behov for funktion er opfyldt.

Der er typisk behov for Commissioning for at sikre brugernes gnidningsfri ibrugtagning af et byggeri eller sikre, at anlæggenes funktion ikke kolliderer med brugernes adfærd, med forringet funktion til følge, det være sig alt fra dårligt indeklima over dårlig funktion af specifikke processer til forhøjet energiforbrug.

En ordentlig Commissioning proces efterlader brugerens bygningsansvarlige med en veldokumenteret bygning, hvor driftsrutinerne er godt igang.

In English:

Building Commissioning - reinvent the wheel

We are working daily to fill the gap that usually occurs between the construction phase and operations phase of a new building. Our tools are workshops, that reveals the Owners Project Requirements, plans, tests, checklists and status reporting, which we organize systematically to a holistic quality assurance process.
We work with Commissioning as described in ASHRAE Guideline 0-2005, The Commissioning Process.

The critical building owner can naturally ask:

- Don't I already pay for my contractors for this?

The answer to this question is both yes and no.

Yes, because there certainly is a chapter in each subcontractor agreement stating that the subcontractor must balance, test and verify the delivery.

No, because a principal or main contractor typically have no qualifications to ensure quality work on technical installations, and usually nothing is stated in the contract with the contractor to assure that all the different technical installations delivered and tested by several subcontractors, will function as a unified whole and thereby facilitating the coming operations of the building.

Applying the Commissioning Process we focus on the contractual obligations already in the Building Process. We work with these obligations, adjust them, and supply the process with more tests to prove and verify that the user needs to function is fulfilled.

There is typically a need for commissioning to ensure smooth transition from the buildings phase to the operations phase. It is a way to ensure that the plant will operate according to the owners requirements to prevent poor indoor climate, the malfunction of specific machinery or increased energy consumption.

A proper Commissioning Process leaves the user's facilities manager with a well-documented building where operational processes are well started.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

mandag den 15. juli 2013

Danish Standard for The Commissioning Process in public review!

One year of intensive work with creating a new Danish standard for The Commissioning process has led to this 66-page proposal. 36 of the pages are informative indexes giving examples on how to write all the normative documents described in the standard.

Even though the annexes are created from real life examples accumulated in our drawers over the years, I found it was hard work to rewrite the text and make it anonymous and universal.

The English title of the standard is “The commissioning process in buildings - Installation services in new buildings and major renovations”

The standard is written in Danish language, but anyhow, feel free to comment!

Here is the intro written on the Danish Standards website:

This standard describes the use of the commissioning process in buildings. The commissioning process is a tool to ensure that requirements for a building are performed through all phases of the construction and into the operating phase. The standard is applicable for the use on building construction and at major rehabilitations and inclusive energy renovations. Major renovations includes e.g. rehabilitations, which is subject to revision of future energy- or operational budget or has a high technical content, e.g.:
- Heating systems
- Ventilation systems
- Cooling systems
- Supply systems, e.g. heat pumps, district heating, boiler plant
- Electrical installations
- Lighting, e.g. daylight control
- Blinds
- Fire ventilation
- Building automation

The commissioning process carried out according to this standard shall support the following purposes:
- Ensure a minimum energy consumption according to energy labeling and building owners requirements
- Ensure meeting the requirements in building regulation and other legal requirements
- Ensure meeting the requirements for the indoor climate
- Verifying the function of systems horizontally of enterprises, e.g. horizontal tests
- Minimize errors and omissions
- Facilitate easy transition between building construction and operation
- Verify that operation- and maintenance material, life cycle cost and documentation are in compliance with the building owners requirements
- Ensure, that operating personnel is educated in such a way that the building can be operated according to the building owners requirements
- Support requirements stated for carrying out commissioning activities according to sustainability certification programmes.

The standard does not comprise the commissioning of the building envelope. The methods as described in this standard are universal and can be used for other installations, e.g. the building envelope, if the observations of the commissioning process brings up conditions, which are related to these installations. The standard can not be used as a reference for commissioning of safety installations, which includes personal safety. The standard does not give normative requirements for the persons, who carries out the commissioning process.

Take a closer look at the new standard and submit your comments through this link:
http://forslagskommentering.ds.dk/