More specifically is your heating, cooling, and ventilation (HVAC) system on schedule? Do your toilet room fans run at night when you are not there? Are you heating or cooling the entire building when no one is working? Changing temperature setpoints and scheduling HVAC equipment to turn off when the building is unoccupied is an easy way to save energy and money. Time-of-day scheduling is one of the biggest benefits of a building automation system (BAS) used to control your HVAC equipment.
Schedule Verification
If you already have a BAS, do you know that your building time-of-day schedules are correct? Is equipment turning on and off at appropriate times? Is your building occupancy the same as when your schedules were established? It can be as simple as reviewing the schedule of operation of air handling units, toilet fans, and space temperature setpoints at the BAS workstation and then comparing them to your current building occupancy patterns.
Training
If your current staff members don’t have the knowledge right now to revise the BAS schedules, you can get training from your local control contractor’s office. Most offer training courses.
Retro-Commissioning
If you don’t have time for training yourself or staff, consider hiring a commissioning agent to review the heating and cooling system schedules for you. A commissioning agent can “retro-commission” your facility and verify your HVAC system operation, make changes to the control system and suggest other ways to save energy and money.
Scheduling your facility’s temperature setpoints and operation of your HVAC equipment can save significant energy and reduce building operating costs. It can be one of the most effective uses of a building automation system, but is frequently not utilized to its full potential.
If you need assistance reviewing your current HVAC system operation or need a commissioning agent to work with, Barton Associates can help you. Please do not hesitate to contact Doug Barnhart, PE at (717) 845-7654 or dcb@ba-inc.com.