ASHRAE Journal - January 2021 - 15

TECHNICAL FEATURE

testing, relative to energy efﬁciency, in all building types
and sizes, as well as deﬁnes Cx provider independence.
Among the many Cx tasks required are general functional performance testing activities, design review,
review for standard and code compliance and enclosure
testing or veriﬁcation.

What are " Professional Services " ?
There are many examples of " professional services "
related to Cx activities described in relevant prominent and credible publications, such as the AABC
Commissioning Group/ACG (AABC/ACG), National
Environmental Balancing Bureau (NEBB), and Building
Commissioning Association (BCA) Cx guidelines.
The Merriam-Webster Legal Dictionary deﬁnes " professional service " this way: " a service requiring specialized
knowledge and skill usually of a mental or intellectual
nature and usually requiring a license, certiﬁcation, or
registration. " 3
Some other examples of characteristics of professional
services are as follows:1
* Services requiring special training or advanced
education;
* Jurisdictions that require holding special licenses or
certiﬁcations to perform building Cx services;
* Requiring knowledge and expertise in a subject
matter or area of specialty;
* Offering customized knowledge-based advice and
consulting services to clients;
* Reviewing design activities to meet standards of
care; and
* Responsible for " results and outcomes " within their
authority.
Any person or firm providing a consulting service
engaged in the " business of giving expert advice to
people working in a professional or technical field " are
providing professional services.

When Can These Services be Provided?
Professional commissioning provider (CxP) services
can be provided on new construction or existing building projects at many different phases of the construction
process.
ASHRAE standards and guidelines, as well as NEBB,
BCA, and AABC/ACG guidelines contain extensive
explanations and descriptions about these processes,
phases and concepts.1,4 - 6

In a new construction project (or major addition), the
CxP can be hired during the following times:
* Predesign-Assist the owner's staff in the development of the OPR.
* Design-Review the design documents; make sure
that the project team is following the OPR; develop Cx
speciﬁcations.
* Construction-Review submittals; develop Cx plan;
make periodic site visits; observe equipment and system
installations, helping to ensure compliance with design
intent; communicate with the Cx team; maintain issues
and resolutions log; perform functional performance
tests; facilitate training and system manual turnover;
write the ﬁnal report.
* Operations-Work with the owner and their maintenance and operations staff to understand the installed
systems through training and documentation. Manage
post-construction activities and monitor that issues are
resolved before the end of the warranty period.
The existing building Cx process is a little different,
and its process focuses on the phases of planning, investigating, implementing, verifying and documenting
that the facility and/or its systems and assemblies are
operated and maintained to meet the current facility
requirements (CFR). It also takes into consideration
programming to maintain the enhancements for the
remaining life of the facility.
Additional terms are used on " existing building " Cx,
depending on if the facility was commissioned previously (or not) such as follows:
* Recommissioning-An application of Cx requirements to a project that has been delivered (before) using
Cx.
* Retro-commissioning-Cx applied to an existing
facility that was not previously commissioned.

What Type of People Typically Perform These Services?
A professional CxP is a person or ﬁrm responsible for
the delivery of the Cx process and procedures based
upon an agreement or speciﬁcation provided by the
entity requesting the speciﬁc Cx work to be performed.
Many CxPs can undertake not only the HVAC&R Cx
specialty, but also the plumbing, electrical, ﬁre protection and building enclosures Cx specialties.
Professional Cx services are delivered to clients by
one, or by a group of, professional(s), expert(s), or
consultant(s). The industry is lacking in specifying
JAN UARY 2021

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ASHRAE Journal - January 2021

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