Building Commissioning

The map is not the territory. Building performance routinely strays from the intent at the time of design, resulting in pervasive problems. Deficiencies such as design flaws, construction defects, and malfunctioning equipment have a host of ramifications, ranging from equipment failure, to compromised indoor air quality and comfort, to unnecessarily elevated energy use or under-performance of energy-efficiency strategies. Fortunately, an emerging form of quality assurance—known as building commissioning—can detect and remedy most deficiencies.

LBNL maintains the world's largest database of actual commissioning project costs and energy savings. The assessments begin with compilation of case-study data on costs, energy savings, the patterns of deficiencies and corrective measures, and non-energy benefits. The resulting analyses include cost-effectiveness, savings persistence, and greenhouse-gas abatement.

Principal Investigator: Evan Mills

This work has been sponsored by:

• California Energy Commission, Public Interest Energy Research
• California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE)
• U.S. Department of Energy, Building Technologies Program