ASHRAE Technical Committee 7.9 - Building Commissioning

RESEARCH

 

Planned Research Activities
Current Research Projects
Completed Research Projects
Non-prioritized Research Ideas
Other Research Documents


Planned Research Activities

The most recent version of the Research Plan prepared for the Research Subcommittee Meeting in Salt Lake City in June 2008. Below is a summary of projects that are currently prioritized by the Research Subcommittee. Priority order not finalized...

Priority
Title
Author
Documents
Most recent status
0
RTAR 1502: User Interface Design for Advanced System Operation
TC 1.4

Jan 10: According to the report on activities of RAC at their fall meeting, this work statement is "Ready to Bid" but has not yet been put out for bid. No projects were put out to bid this fall, and there are 20 on the list of possible projects for spring of 2010. This one is on that list, but likely they will not do all 20 at this time.

Jun 09: Project is set for fall bid. Was supposed to bid this past March but was not addressed by RAC.

Jan 09: In the subcommittee meeting, WS 1502 was set as priority #1. RAC conditionally approved this work statement, so it is cycling off our priority list. It is expected to go out for bid shortly.

[We were previously referring to this RTAR under the number 1528.]

1
RTAR 1587: Improved Tools for Control Loop Performance Measurement and Evaluation
Bill Pienta

Jan 10: Bill revised the work statement based on review comments and the subcommittee agreed to forward it to the TC for vote by the TC. According to J.R.'s e-mail, voting was 16 in favor, no opposed. The results have been provided to ASHRAE. We hope that the work statement will be considered by RAC at the Orlando meeting. If it is accepted, Bill has indicated an interest in chairing the proposal evaluation subcommittee.

Aug 09 report: RTAR 1587 has been accepted by ASHRAE. Bill drafted a work statement some time ago when it was under a different title. He has distributed the relevant documents to the subcommittee, including the new RTAR, the old work statement, and ASHRAE’s comments on the new RTAR. The old Work Statement needs to be rewritten to conform to the new scope. Since then ASHRAE submitted it to NIST as part of an application for stimulus funding. They are now in urgent need of a work statement. The TC will be asked to vote on it for submission to the ASHRAE meeting in October.

2
RTAR 2005-57: Utilization of Random Sampling Technology in Performing Building Commissioning
Kristin Heinemeier

Jay Enck

RTAR

Old RTAR

RAC Comments (gone missing!)

 

Jan 09 report: Jay has the file. Has e-mailed Kristin to request the RAC comments, which Dave did not bring with him.

June 08 report: Jay is willing to carry this RTAR forward with some help from Kristin.

3
WS 1241 - Impact of Commissioning HVAC Systems on Life Cycle Cost
Kristin Heinemeier
RTAR

 

Jun 09: Annex 47 has completed a literature review and a data model which could be used to reduce the scope of WS1241. The new scope would be to refine the data model (as needed), and create algorithms and implement them in real buildings. Natascha Castro will carry this forward.

Human Factors in Operations-phase Commissioning
Michael Bobker
June 08: Define and consider the human factors impacts on the acceptance and implementation of findings by building operators from emerging technology represented by tools and platforms for on-going commissioning, FDD, and remote monitoring. Human factors engineering can be applied for improved performance. This research can be seen as an add-on phase to the current generation of research projects and pilots that are developing and testing such tools and platforms. Early findings suggest that there are barriers to resolve on the operations staff side in making full use of the emergent technology. This work would be coordinated with TRG-7's work under the Strategic Plan Objectives.
User Manual for SPC 0
Gerry Kettler
Jan 09: Create a user manual for SPC 0.


Current Research Projects

The Research Subcommittee is represented on the monitoring subcommittee for 1274-RP, which was co-sponsored by this TC.

Title
Sponsoring TC
Contractor
Most recent status
1274-RP: Field Performance Assessment of Packaged Equipment to Quantify the Benefits of Proper Service and Assessing the Long Term Need for Monitoring, FDD, and Continuous Commissioning Technology

7.5, Smart Building Systems

Co-sponsored by TC 7.9

ADM Associates, Inc.

Sponsored by 7.5 (formerly 4.11; Prioritized RTAR.

Jun 09: The final report has been approved by all but one member of the PMS. The details are being worked out and the project should close out in the next month or so.

Jan 08: This project is wrapping up. The contractor has provided a draft final report and also made a final presentation to the PMS.



Completed Research Projects

The Research Subcommittee co-sponsored project 1032-RP, which is now complete. The Subcommittee also closely followed 1137-RP, which was sponsored by TC 1.4.

Title
Sponsoring TC
Contractor
Most recent status
1137-RP: Field Performance Assessment of VAV Control systems Before and After Commissioning
1.4, Control Theory and Application
Patrick Fleming/ Stantech Consulting
Project is complete. Larry Fisher presented final report at full TC meeting. (June 2004)
1032-RP: Identification and Preservation of Building Design Information for Use in Commissioning and Operations
1.5, Computer Applications
PECI
Reps on PMS: JR Anderson and Eli Howard. Project complete, final report has been delivered, reviewed at last meeting. Symposium will be held in Jan 2003. (June 2002)


Non-prioritized Research Ideas

The Research Subcommittee has identified a large number of research ideas over the past several years. Many of these are described on one-page write-ups or RTARs, and several were developed as work statements. The research ideas that have been written up are summarized in the table below. Other research ideas that have never been written up can be found in the old Research Reports, on the Meetings page.

Title
Author
Documents
Most recent status
Field-Based Evaluation of Methods for Commissioning DDC Systems
Larry Fisher
    Larry Fisher has agreed to write the RTAR and seek TC 1.4 Control Theory and Application as a co-sponsor. (June 2004)
Jan 06 report: Ken will check with Larry and get info to Dave. Larry did not respond, because of international travel.
Jan 07: Ken will ask Larry one more time about this. Possibly the best thing to do would be to take this away from Larry and appoint another champion. That person is Ken Gillespie.
RTAR 2005-56: The Impact of Commissioning on Comfort
Dave Shipley

  June 08 report: The committee as well as the author agree that this RTAR should be dropped.
M&V for Cx
Kristin Heinemeier
    California Commissioning Collaborative is starting a project on this topic, so the Subcommittee decided to drop the topic. (Jan. 2007)
Methods of Improving Persistence of Commissioning Savings in Control Systems
Ken Peet, David Underwood
    Seminar 26 at the January 2007 meeting addressed this topic. This seminar was proposed to find out what is already known and to identify any gaps. Any new topics arising from that seminar can be proposed as a new research topic. The Subcommittee decided to drop this topic, however. (Jan. 2007)
One Time vs Short-Term vs Seasonal Testing of Air-Handling Units
Mingsheng Liu
    This was put on hold until WS-1092, but the original author has been too busy to take further action since then. The Subcommittee decided to drop the topic. (Jan. 2007)
WS 1312 - Tools for Evaluating Fault Detection and Diagnostic Methods for Air-Handling Units
John House
This draft work statement was presented to the Subcommittee at Anaheim. Members had some questions about it, which were not fully resolved during the discussion. The Subcommittee expressed interest in the work statement, and planned to consider it again at the meeting in Nashville. (Jan. 2004)
WS 1115 - Identification of Ideal Monitoring Data Points for Comnmissioning Support During HVAC Design
Dave Shipley
Submitted, accepted, and contractor selected before Tech Council turned it back. We believe some parts may be done by others, so we will reassess need for project, and rescope/redraft WS if necessary. Dave will follow up with Ken Gillespie (PG&E), PECI, and TC1.7 (GPC 4) and make recommendation at next meeting whether to resubmit or drop. (January 2002 - Decision was made in June 2002 to drop this work statement and monitor parallel work by CEC PIER program.)
Quantifying Building Energy Performance Persistence of Savings after Retro-Commissioning
Needs champion
RTAR was rejected with comments. Author revised RTAR. However, much of this work has been done….need to revise to focus on any gaps. (June 2002)
Development and Implementation of Commissioning Strategies for Optimal Control Evaluation
Dave Shipley
Deleted after June 2002 meeting, due to lack of action/interest from TC 4.6. (June 2002)
The Building Automation System's Role in Commissioning of HVAC Systems
Jim Gartner
Deleted after June 2002 meeting due to lack of action/interest from TC 1.4 or from IEA Annex 40 participants. (June 2002)
Diagnostic tools for maintenance, operating and commissioning cost optimization
Tom Tamblyn
No further action was taken on this research idea, due to lack of action/interest from TC 1.8. (Feb 2000)


Other Research Documents

Research Plans: Previous versions of our Research Plans may be found in the meetings area of this site.

Research Meeting Notes: Notes on previous Research Subcommittee meetings may be found in the meetings area of this site.

Sample Size Calculator: In the development of one of our work statements, the Research Subcommittee needed to calculate the sample size required to obtain statistically significant results. We developed a simple spreadsheet for making this calculation, based on the answers to several questions. We are providing the spreadsheet without restriction. Remember, it's usually best to have someone with a good understanding of statistics take a look at your experimental design, so you don't waste time and money collecting data that don't successfully answer the research questions.

Additional Research Ideas: In February 2000, Kenneth Gillespie, of PG&E (contact information on members-only TC website) submitted a list of 27 additional research ideas, with information on their status at that time.

Subcommittee Membership: A list of Research Subcommittee members is provided. TC members can go to the members-only area of the site to obtain contact information for the subcommittee members.

Other Documents: Some additional documents are not currently being provided on the public area of the site. TC members can go to the members-only area of the site to review them.

All files are in Adobe Acrobat format. The Adobe Acrobat Reader may be downloaded free from the Adobe web site. To download files using Internet Explorer, Right-click the document name and choose "Save Target As" option.

Research Chair:

Dave Shipley
Marbek Resource Consultants
eMail: Dave Shipley (shipley@marbek.ca)