Commissioning

Erdman Anthony provided commissioning services for a 125,000-square-foot renovation at Charlotte High School in Rochester, NY. The renovation was part of the Rochester City School District’s Modernization Program, Phase 1A.

The commissioning process began during the construction phase, followed by the acceptance phase, and concluded with the warranty phase. The basis for delivering Cx services was modeled after the Portland Energy Conservation, Inc. (PECI) Model Commissioning Plan.

The project began with architectural, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical demolition throughout various areas of the building. The second phase of construction included the renovation of these demoed areas, and installing new finish work, furniture, and various types of HVAC equipment and systems.

The following systems were commissioned:

• HVAC equipment, including air handling units, chiller, unit ventilators, fan and blower coil units, and finned tube and variable air volume terminal units
• Supply, return, and exhaust air systems
• Chilled water, steam, and condensate systems
• Electrical (occupancy sensors)
• Plumbing equipment, including a domestic hot water heating system and distribution system
• A direct digital control system (building management system)

Erdman Anthony’s efforts confirmed that the building systems’ installation and operation conformed to the design intent and the owner’s operational needs.

Throughout the project, Erdman Anthony’s Cx deliverables included site observation reports describing the construction progress through periodic site visits, a Cx issues log outlining project deficiencies, preparing prefunctional checklists used by the contractors to verify that the installation of the systems and equipment were in compliance with the design documents, functional performance test scripts used during functional testing as a guideline and a recordkeeping device to test the function and implemented sequence of operation, and a review of the operation and maintenance manual in order to confirm that the owner is left with an adequate amount of information to run and maintain the newly installed systems properly.

The contractor’s owner training and demonstration were also reviewed to verify the maintenance staff was well-versed on the commissioned systems.

At the conclusion of the project, a final Cx report and systems manual were written and delivered to the owner that outlined the entire commissioning process and all of the documentation throughout the project.