Introducing Commissioning
All buildings, factories, hospitals, hotels, superstores, data-centres, etc contain complex systems for moving warm air, cold air and conditioned air. In addition, water heating systems can be used to heat and cool spaces. Moving air and water around premises is vital to ensure people are breathing well ventilated, temperature controlled air and their water systems are delivering heating and cooling are required.
What is HVAC Commissioning?
In the HVAC world, "commissioning" means T.A.B (Testing, Adjusting and Balancing) of systems to ensure they run efficiently and to the set standards and code of practice specified by CIBSE and BSRIA.
How does commissioning start?
Before any new building can be signed off for use, the HVAC systems need to be pre-commissioned to make sure everything specified for the system is in place and installed correctly. Following this inspection, there are often snags or issues that require remedial works. Once these issues are resolved, commissioning can commence. this then requires specialist qualified engineers to start commissioning the air and water systems.
The Commissioning Process
We start by setting up the air handing (Attu's) and water pumps to 1107 to design duty issued from the client, customer or system designer. Then on a conventional system we go through all the data and test sheets to balance each component to the design issues.
Why is it so important to get commissioning right?
If a system is not balanced or commissioned correctly it could be very costly in terms of both money and health. If the heating is set too high or low, this can be expensive, in addition, if the air isn't properly ventilated, staff can become lethargic or ill.
What equipment is required?
A typical commissioning engineer's van will contain the following instruments:
For Vents:
- Bolometer / Capture Hood
- Micromanometer
- Anemometer
- Pitot Tubes
For Water:
- Digital Thermometer
- Temperature Probes
What standards must work adhere to?
Commissioning must adhere to CIBSE Code of Practice. Also BSRIA.
A large commissioning job, say for a data centre with over 10 miles of chilled water pipework could take up to 3 months. There are the large ends of commissioning projects which Dakro specialise in.