Retro-Commissioning Phase I Demonstration Project Shanghai, China

Abstract

July of 2004, our firm was contracted to complete the initial phase for a typical retro-commissioning process conducted on three high-rise commercial buildings in Shanghai, China. This work was sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) eeBuildings program and our retro-commissioning team included representatives from the EPA and three student participants from the Department of Facilities Engineering & Management at Tongji University in Shanghai. The scope of work for this project included a cursory review of all available documentation, interviews with the building operations staff, physical inspections of all HVAC and lighting control related systems and limited functional testing and data-logging of HVAC related performance parameters. Once the inspections and tests were completed, we met with the building owner representatives to discuss our findings and make recommendations for potential low and no cost improvements that would result in reduced energy consumption and improved indoor air quality. The aim of this paper will be to describe our experiences during this demonstration project and discuss how this approach might be further refined and applied to other locations. We will emphasize the value of incorporating local participants into our project team in an effort to better “seed” the practice of building commissioning and to promote a longer term commitment to completing and sustaining the improvements identified through our demonstration project.