Comparative review of building commissioning regulation: a quality perspective

Abstract

Building regulations are an important policy instrument available to governments wishing to improve building energy efficiency, which should be a priority to policy-makers wishing to target cost-effective avenues in support of carbonabatement targets. Meanwhile, building system commissioning has been recognized as a cost-effective measure to cut energy consumption, but in practice commissioning quality can deliver less-than-satisfactory outcomes. Regulation needs to better support commissioning outcomes. A five-grade commissioning scale is developed to assess the quality of commissioning and propose a common language to assist with regulation setting. Using this scale, building regulation and polices related to new and refurbished building commissioning were analysed in comparative case studies between jurisdictions England and California. This study finds that Californian regulations mandate a higher quality of commissioning and regulations that are more enforceable. The crucial elements to support bettercommissioned buildings were identified as: outputs-focused regulation (not input based); regulation and process clarity; commissioning agents and building official training; as well as acknowledging the financial burden of upholding more complex building regulations. For the full benefit of commissioning to be realized, policy and regulations for existing buildings will be required.

Assessment of the global warming potential associated with the construction process of healthcare centres

“…The impact of the final tests and functional tests is reduced and helps to optimise the commissioning of the building. Commissioning processes are recommended to ensure the correct start-up of a healthcare centre (Lord et al, 2016). The convenience or not of renovating or making new healthcare buildings under the proposed methodology should be assessed to determine the environmental impact of the building process (Alba-Rodríguez et al, 2017).…”

Mapping failures in energy and environmental performance of buildings

“…Office buildings in warm climates and emerging economies are likely to encounter a wide range of performance failures related to IEQ, efficiency and user satisfaction, but may not have access to full commissioning services, either due to the cost of the service or the lack of experienced personnel. Where building commissioning is carried out purely because it is mandated or required, it risks becoming an ineffectual bureaucratic exercise; regulation and consistency may be difficult to achieve [29]. An investigation of the failure modes in a specific building type can thus provide valuable insights in how to evaluate and improve performance across the building stock.…”

Quality control of constructions: European trends and developments

“…These requirements indicate the minimal performance of building component or composition of components. This means in theory that new design solutions and building methods are possible to reach the requirements and -in terms of Lord et al (2016), they steer at output (the minimum performance) than on input. In practice, however, many countries provide the building industry with guidance's how these performances can be realised.…”

“…A further important aspect of the quality control process is the way the enforcement procedures are defined (Lord et al, 2016). Is it clear when the quality control starts (design phase) and ends (at completion or also during the user phase)?…”

“…Rather than focussing on the contents of the regulations, the recommendations below are mainly focussed on the question how the effectiveness and rate of compliance (enforcement) of the quality control framework can be enlarged. Research works done by Burby et al (1998), Lord et al (2016) and Meijer and Visscher (2016) show that effective building regulations need to be formulated into an unambiguous, strong and enforceable way. The enforcement process must be clear and carried out by qualified personnel.…”