Introduction
Building Performance Services (BPS) are services designed to help optimize building efficiency. BPS includes several elements (see Additional Elements of BPS below), but at the heart of BPS are the building tune-up and enhanced O&M (operation and maintenance), two key services that keep buildings performing at their best. These are supplemental services that help your customers reduce their operating costs and improve building performance, occupant comfort, and equipment reliability. These two services give your and your customers a competitive advantage.
Building Tune-up
The building tune-up is a systematic evaluation of the building's mechanical system to identify low-cost opportunities for energy savings. It is a periodic process that ideally occurs every 2-3 years. It uses root-cause analysis to find and fix problems and implement operational improvements. The process benefits from the broad skill set of an engineering professional who should be part of the service-delivery team.
While the tune-up may identify equipment that need replacing, it is not a capital improvement project. Nor is it retrocommissioning-a much more comprehensive and expensive process.
A building tune-up typically includes:
- systematically diagnosing and repairing problems
- implementing specific operational changes
- optimizing controls
- scheduling equipment
- identifying key performance indicators
Specific Business Opportunities for:
Enhanced O&M
While the building tune-up takes place every 2-3 years, enhanced O&M is an ongoing series of routine actions and practices designed to sustain building performance over time. Traditionally, O&M has focused on occupant comfort and equipment reliability. With enhanced O&M, you can offer services that also maintain the energy efficiency achieved during the tune-up.
Enhanced O&M typically includes:
- reporting and tracking energy usage
- improving system documentation, including:
- sequences of operations
- as-built drawings
- user manuals
- monitoring system performance
- modifying preventive maintenance (PM) routines to maintain performance achieved during building tune-up
- developing technical expertise of building staff
- analyzing root causes, including:
- understanding the cause of the problem
- understanding the system as a whole and the implications of modifications
The Tools and Resources sections contain more detailed information about the elements of the building tune-up and enhanced O&M.
Additional Elements of BPS
The building tune-up and enhanced O&M are part of the larger Building Performance Services concept.
The complete Building Performance Services Concept
- Screening: Gathering basic building characteristics and energy-use information to determine the feasibility of a BPS project.
- Scoping: Gathering information necessary to present a client with a proposal for services. It involves walking through the building, interviewing the building owners and facilities team, reviewing documentation, etc.
- Commissioning: (for existing buildings) A formal, comprehensive, in-depth assessment of the building's functioning. It involves documenting the intended operation of building systems and conducting a thorough functional testing of equipment and systems.
- Equipment Replacement: Capital improvement projects. Often equipment needs are identified during the other phases of the BPS process. The local utility can be a valuable partner in evaluating retrofit opportunities and may even be able to offer financial assistance.