Building Automation Services
Continuous Commissioning & Retro-Cx
Every building drifts. Points get overridden during a fault and never released. Schedules are disabled for an event and never re-enabled. Valves are left in hand. Setpoints creep as occupants complain. Sensors go out of calibration quietly, and the control system keeps obeying them. Two years after a successful handover, a well-designed system can be running at a fraction of its intended efficiency while every screen still shows green.
Book a commissioning assessmentWhat Continuous Commissioning Actually Involves
Commissioning is usually treated as an event: a set of tests, a signature, a handover file. Continuous commissioning treats it as a process that runs for the life of the building, using the data the BMS is already collecting.
Stage 1 — Assessment
We take a full point inventory, pull historical trends, and identify what is overridden, disabled, in hand, alarming persistently or simply not reporting. This usually surfaces more than anyone expects. Output is a written findings report with each issue costed for effort and ranked by impact.
Stage 2 — Sequence Review
We compare the sequences as installed against the sequences as specified, and against ASHRAE Guideline 36 where it applies. Guideline 36 sets out high-performance sequences of operation for HVAC systems — economiser logic, trim-and-respond static pressure and supply air temperature reset, demand-controlled ventilation, and the state transitions between them.
Stage 3 — Correction and Tuning
Sequences are rewritten where necessary. Control loops are tuned against live operating data rather than default values — chilled water valves, static pressure control, supply air temperature, zone dampers. Overrides are released, schedules restored, calibration corrected. Every change is logged with a reason.
Stage 4 — Verification and Monitoring
Functional performance tests confirm each corrected sequence behaves as intended across its operating range. Measurement and verification follows ASHRAE Guideline 14, so the saving claimed is the saving you can defend to a finance director. Ongoing monitoring rules then flag drift as it reappears, because it will.
What We Look For First
- Points in override or hand, and how long they have been there
- Simultaneous heating and cooling
- Schedules that do not match actual occupancy
- Economiser dampers that never open, or never close
- Static pressure and supply air temperature setpoints running fixed instead of reset
- Control loops hunting, or so detuned they never reach setpoint
- Chilled water and condenser water reset strategies that were designed but never enabled
- Sensors reading outside plausible range, or reading identical values across a floor
- Alarms that have been standing for months and are now ignored
- Meters that were installed, wired and never mapped
Standards We Work To
- ASHRAE Guideline 36 — high-performance sequences of operation for HVAC systems. This is what the control logic should do.
- ASHRAE Guideline 0.2 and Standard 202 — the commissioning process for existing systems. This is how the work is structured and evidenced.
- ASHRAE Guideline 14 — measurement of energy, demand and water savings. This is how the result is proven.
- Using the right guideline for the right purpose matters. A lot of tender documents cite Guideline 36 for the commissioning process, which it does not cover. We will follow whatever your specification says, and we will tell you if it says something that does not make technical sense.
Deliverables
- Assessment and findings report, with issues ranked by energy and comfort impact
- Revised sequences of operation, issued as a controlled document
- Change log recording every modification, the reason and the date
- Functional performance test records, signed
- Measurement and verification report to ASHRAE Guideline 14
- Monitoring rules configured in the BMS or analytics layer to detect recurrence
- Handover briefing for the operations team
Tell us about the building.
Send us the specification, the point list, or just a description of what is not working. You will get a reply from an engineer within one working day.