ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 41

Technical FeaTure
Fea

functional and performance tests that the commissioning authority (CxA) will perform and/or observe.
Unlike creating the OPR and the BOD-which are collaborative documents involving every party involved in
the building project-the Cx Plan describes the specific
tasks of the Cx team. Therefore, the CxA must write the
Cx Plan.
The Cx Plan helps ensure project success by:
ƒ Explaining how the CxA will monitor the project's design and construction.
ƒ Describing the pre-functional tests and functional
performance tests (FPTs) that will be needed, and how
the CxA will observe and/or perform those tests.
ƒ Explaining how all control sequences will be validated.
ƒ Describing how the testing, adjusting, and balancing
(TAB) report and other key equipment and system tests
will be verified. Note: Future articles in this series will
address specifics about the design review process, prefunctional tests, and FPTs.
"Why all this effort?" you may ask. "What problem are
you trying to solve?" Technical commissioning practitioners are often retained to find out why buildings do
not work as expected-or required. And when trying to
sort out "problem" buildings, they often discover design
flaws, installation issues, incorrect control sequences,
invalid test and balance reports, and similar problems-
all of which can prevented or significantly mitigated with a wellcrafted OPR, BOD, and Cx Plan.
The Cx process is actually made up of four phases:
planning, design, construction, and post-occupancy.
Therefore, the Cx Plan is a "living" document that must
change and adapt throughout the project. For example,
during the design phase, the Cx Plan will include
generic tests and forms. But during the construction
phase, the CxA must update and finalize the Cx Plan
based on the actual installed equipment so the final
version of the plan can be used to confirm proper operations during post-occupancy.
The multiple phases of the Cx Plan will be discussed in
detail in the remaining articles in this series.

Building the Plan
Start your Cx Plan with a statement similar to this:
The building owner has retained [company name] as the
project's Commissioning Authority (CxA). The purpose of this
Commissioning Plan (Cx Plan) is to thoroughly describe the
scope, organization, schedules, responsibilities, resource

allocation, and documentation requirements of the entire
Commissioning Process. Therefore, the specific commissioning
requirements of the project's design team-as well as the requirements of the various project subcontractors-are listed and
described in detail throughout this Cx Plan. For details, refer to the
various Sections of the project specifications, including General
Conditions, Architectural, Mechanical, and Electrical.
It's also important to incorporate key statements into
the Cx Plan to help eliminate elements of surprise during the Cx process, including:
ƒ A complete description (name, contact information,
address, etc.) of the company that has been engaged to
serve as CxA.
ƒ A clear endorsement of the CxA, specifically noting that the building owner has officially empowered
the CxA to represent his/her interests during the entire
scope of project design and construction.
ƒ Clear, detailed descriptions of the Cx-related tests
that will be conducted as work progresses.

Making Your Plan Unique to Your Project
No one likes to continually reinvent the wheel. For that
reason, it may be tempting to recycle text from other
Cx Plans you've developed. But while it's fine to reuse
selected verbiage, it's important that your plan doesn't
end up as just a group of standardized boilerplate text
blocks wrapped around a set of project specifications.
Instead, make sure every Cx Plan you develop includes
detailed descriptions of the specific components, equipment, systems, tests, and team members-and the exact
roles that team members will play in the Cx process.
Table 6 of the second article in this series (OPR, August
2013, p. 38) referenced sample building components
and systems that are normally mentioned in the Cx
Plan, including:
ƒ Building envelope
ƒ Mechanical (HVAC) equipment
ƒ Plumbing system
ƒ Fire protection systems
ƒ Electrical systems
ƒ Fire alarm
ƒ Security systems
ƒ Communications systems.
ƒ Elevators, intercom systems, and other specialty systems may also be included in the Cx process.
Consider the example of a building's mechanical systems. In the third article in this series (BOD, October
D ecem ber 2013

ashrae.org

ASHRAE JouRnAl

41



ASHRAE Journal - December 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - December 2013

Contents
Commentary
Industry News
Letters
Meetings and Shows
Feature Articles
Ventilation Control in Terminal Units With Variable Speed Fan Control
Cooling Load Calculations for Radiant Systems
Botanical Research Laboratory
Strategies for Sustainability
Technical vs. Process Commissioning: Preparing a Cx Plan
Standing Columns
Engineer's Notebook
Building Sciences
The Performance Gap
Refrigeration Applications
New Product Preview
Energy Modeling
Emerging Technologies
HVAC Applications
Data Centers
Products
2013 Indices
Classified Advertising
Advertisers Index
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Intro
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Cover1
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Cover2
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 1
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 2
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Contents
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Commentary
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 5
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Industry News
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 7
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Letters
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 9
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Meetings and Shows
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 11
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Ventilation Control in Terminal Units With Variable Speed Fan Control
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 13
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 14
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 15
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 16
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 17
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 18
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 19
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Cooling Load Calculations for Radiant Systems
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 21
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 22
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 23
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 24
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 25
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 26
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 27
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Botanical Research Laboratory
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 29
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 30
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 31
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 32
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 33
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Strategies for Sustainability
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 35
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 36
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 37
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 38
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 39
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Technical vs. Process Commissioning: Preparing a Cx Plan
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 41
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 42
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 43
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 44
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 45
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 46
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 47
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Engineer's Notebook
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 49
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 50
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 51
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Building Sciences
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 53
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ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 55
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 56
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 57
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 58
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 59
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - The Performance Gap
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 61
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 62
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 63
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Refrigeration Applications
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - New Product Preview
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 66
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 67
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 68
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 69
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 70
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ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 128
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 129
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 130
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Energy Modeling
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Emerging Technologies
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 133
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 134
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 135
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 136
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 137
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - HVAC Applications
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 139
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 140
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 141
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Data Centers
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 143
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 144
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Products
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 146
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 147
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 2013 Indices
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 149
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - 150
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Classified Advertising
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Advertisers Index
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Cover3
ASHRAE Journal - December 2013 - Cover4
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