Engineered Systems - February 2008 - (Page 10) Back 2 Basics Based on Cx-3 ATC/FPT software BY HOWARD MCKEW, P.E., C.P.E. Engi Eng neering in the Construction Engineering in the Construction Phase n to • The designer should manage the design phase fee so that adequate The h should manage ud a adequate dequ q funds remain to participate in the field coordination drawing phase participate r draw draw awing of construction. Refer to the August 2007 issue of Engineered Systems for“Design & Construction Administration for the 21st Century,” for more information on the “60/40 rule.” • The design engineer should request the equipment O&M manual for the associated piece of equipment immediately after the shop drawing has been approved, so that the facility manager can begin the process of building the PM workorder system in the first quarter of the construction phase. For this B2B application, it is assumed there will be no on-site facility manager, so the building owner will need to solicit a local HVAC service contractor to compile the PM workorder requirements along with an annual maintenance fee to maintain the equipment. This service contractor should also provide a remote monitoring service contract fee to monitor space temperatures, safeties, and alarms and provide 24-hr response coverage with 4-hr response time guaranteed. • The design engineer should use standardized equipment checklists (refer to “HVACR Designer Tips” for construction observation) for documenting installation progress, system readiness, and final punchlist. This electronic equipment checklist can be provided to the facility manager at the end of the job to be linked to the HVAC service contractor’s PM workorder system. • The design engineer should document installation progress using a digital camera combined with the construction drawing detail to document contract compliance. • Consideration should be given to the use of “smart software” (e.g., Cx-3 software) that provides the ability to print out each sequenceby-sequence flow diagram along with an associated ATC/FPT checklist that can be laminated and put into an operator’s handbook along with OPR and BofD for quick reference, troubleshooting, and future recommissioning. The handbook should be located at unit with electronic copy saved on CD-ROM. This same program can be used by the TAB firm when it creates the system flow diagram documenting the flows, velocities, pressure drops, etc., and laminated and saved within the operator’s handbook. • The design engineer should invest at least one day to providing system training using the operator handbooks to educate the owner and associated HVAC service contractor leading up to the building system commissioning, highlighting the basis of design and estimated energy budget. Third-Party Commissioning and TAB Engineering in the Construction Phase • Those who contract for commissioning in the construction phase of the job usually interpret commissioning as being startup. When the commissioning firm is hired to perform FPT, experience has shown that this approach to commissioning is really enhanced startup. Commissioning should begin in the schematic phase of a building program, although commissioning starting in the construction phase is better than no commissioning at all. • The commissioning engineer shall facilitate a specific number of e commissioning engineer shall facilitate specific nu ber ommissioning ngine missioni n hall a p fi numb fic commissioning team meetings along with the distribution of meetmeetings along with the distribution commissio ing ommission n issi eting alon i h ngs n uti t ing minutes. This engineer shall also participate in system readiness minutes This engineer shall o i his ineer h r i system site visits and issue field visit reports along with completed observation checklists and digital photographs. • Prior to the FPT demonstration to the owner, the contractor is required to complete the PFPT, better known as equipment and system startup. • The commissioning engineer should produce a commissioning test plan and schedule spreadsheet (preferable inserted into Division 18000 of the contract specification) which shall be used by the contractor to fill in the target dates and completion dates for tasks. The PFPT team should include the contractor (general contractor or construction manager), HVAC contractor, ATC installer and programmer, electrical contractor, TAB engineer, equipment manufacturers (e.g., AHU), and facility operating group or local HVAC service contractor. In many installations, the automatic control computer software may be furnished on the unit (e.g., AHU-1 control panel CP-1) and programmed by the equipment manufacturer and not be part of the ATC contractor’s responsibility. • The software program associated with the building system sequence of operation should be closely reviewed, tested, and finalized prior to demonstrating the system performance to the commissioning team. When commissioning the computer software programs, it is important that the commissioning engineer have access to the flow diagram (control logic) as part of the FPT procedures. • The TAB engineer in the shop drawing phase shall submit the system flow diagram with design data, along with the final TAB report table of contents and other pertinent documents outlined in the Division 19000 specification. • The TAB engineer shall participate in a specific number of contractor field coordination drawing phase meetings and sign off on TAB-ability. • The TAB engineer shall provide pre-TAB site inspections reports, along with completed industry standard observation checklists and digital photographs of installation status. • When demonstrating the FPT for the AHU system, the HVAC service contractor who will provide the annual maintenance management should be participating to receive on-the-job system training. This process should include observing the system performance and also reviewing the O&M manual and PM work orders. • When observing the AHU-1 system FTP, the commissioning team will need to have a commissioning engineer at the building automation control panel/computer and another commissioning engineer or technician at the end devices to observe “action-reaction.” 10 En gi neer ed S y stem s February 2008
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