[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Consulting Specifying Engineer podcast. I'm your host Anna Steingruber and today I'm here with Charles Jackson, the Mid Atlantic commissioning lead and electrical engineering department lead with CMTA to talk about existing building commissioning. As sustainability continues to be a top concern for engineers and building owners, considering engineer energy during the commissioning process has also become increasingly important.
During the commissioning and tab processes, it's necessary to talk about how energy systems currently use, what energy systems currently use, and what can be changed to make them more efficient.
Our guest Today, Charles Jackson, P.E. lead AP BD C has 20 years experience in commissioning and electrical engineering. He is currently with CMTA and is located in Arlington, Virginia. As a graduate of Drexel University, he was named a 40 under 40 winner with consulting specifying engineer in 2022 and he currently serves on the board of Directors for the Associated Air Balance Council Commissioning Group, or the acg. Thank you so much for being here today, Charles.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: So, to get.
Yeah, glad you're here to get us started. Can you tell us how does existing building commissioning work together with energy audits?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it's kind of goes hand in hand. So a lot of times, you know, when you have existing buildings, one of the first things that are always recommended to see where you're at, kind of get a bench, a benchmark is doing an energy audit, either a level one or level two. And one of the, one of the big things that come out of energy audit is sometimes adding additional existing building commissioning to it or retro commissioning. And what that does is so they kind of work hand in hand. So, so you never know what comes first, the chicken or an egg. So like if you're doing retro commissioning on an existing building, you might come up with some energy conservation measures or recommendations for the owner to, to, you know, make a more detailed energy audit or something of that nature. Or when you're doing an energy audit, you might notice, notice some documentation or notice some systems that, that could be refined and you recommend existing building commissioning. So they kind of tie together but the goal for is just to try to know, make your building more efficient, see where you're at, see what type of future projects you need.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah, great. And so what are the initial benefits of an existing building commissioning?
[00:02:34] Speaker B: So, so, so one of the big things, and I think my biggest proponent, you know, and champion of, of existing building commissioning is the documentation. A lot of times you're going into existing buildings and drawings are missing as builts are missing. You know, a lot of projects have gone undocumented so when you're doing existing building commissioning, you're, you're doing a thorough investigation, you're reviewing the current documents, you're, you're detailing where, where the project is, where the building is, you know, what's the capacity on your electrical distribution, what's your, you know, your mechanical distribution. And also the goal is you're kind of running through, seeing if some of the sequence makes sense.
You know, how long has this building been active? The sequence that were done, the sequence that were done 20 years ago for the controls, do they still make sense with the current use of the building?
We all know that, you know, currently you're working in office buildings, they've done a dramatic shift over the past couple years where, you know, the occupancy isn't as high as it used to be. So these are things that in an existing building commission, you're able to document that. You also able to recommend future projects from test, you know, testing some of the sequences, seeing if you have damaged equipment, end of life equipment. So that's one of the biggest, you know, benefits is you're giving, you're giving the facility owner, hey, this is where you're at and these are the recommendations to, you know, get further. Do you need to upgrade your central utility? Do you need to just maybe redo the sequences, bring in newer, you know, some, some updated controls. So it's just one of the biggest, biggest parts and that I love about existing building, it gives your owner the ability to see where, where am I at currently.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: And what are some examples of how existing building commissioning has provided day one energy savings.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: So one of the biggest things that with CMTA is we're big into the data, you know, data driven and results proven. So we've worked on a lot of different projects over the years and accumulated data. So when we're doing existing building commissioning, it's, it's a good opportunity to kind of see where we're at, you know, looking at the utility bills, looking at the trend analysis and getting that information. So a few projects. One project that comes to mind is a project that we're doing with Virginia Tech.
We did a fume hood study I guess a few years back to kind of see, you know, where we can, where, where the systems, where, where the, where their exhaust fumes are for their lab systems, what the current, you know, what the current set points are, the current condition of the, of the different heat fume hoods and our recommendations.
And from there we saw that just by maybe recommissioning some of the systems, checking on the sequences and changing some of the static set points, you were able to save a tremendous amount of energy. That gave you a nice simple payback. Like I said, as we went through it we found other things, maybe an actuator was open or broke. So these are small things that went unnoticed and we were able to, you know, kind of go in there and as we're going in there give those recommendations for, for the, you know, the in house team to kind of fix and treat it like a campus approach. So that, that's one that I, you know, I was happy to be a part of on the retro commissioning side. And also we're doing, you know, a few government projects where we're working on getting the end of life. Like so we're going through all of the systems to chill water systems and we were able to document where we're at. We kind of went through, create a little checklist, went through all the systems, check the motion, see where we're at, see if they're monitoring correctly, you know, see if, you know, see if everything is operating, see if you, the filter's working, you know, see if you're losing air, see, you know, so those were type of small, small things that are easily fixed and also like if the equipment was at the end of life per you know, ASHRAE recommendations, we were able to easily say, hey, these are some quick fixes that can have you up and running and this might be a larger capital project.
So those were some of, some of the big, you know, for me benefits and like I said over and overall we always recommend we, we have another project with ap, you know, Arlington Public Schools that were working on some of the buildings and we found that some of the sequences weren't working correctly and you know, there are some over, overwritten stuff. So these are things that we're immediately able to bring in the controls, contractor, change it and, and get it working and you know, saving energy on day one. So that's kind of some of the benefits, you know, from projects that I specifically worked on that we made immediately, immediate impact just, just from being out there, you know, one or two days.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's great. And for ACG specifically, is there anything that's coming up that you'd like to talk about?
[00:08:01] Speaker B: Well, well, one of the big things that I'm happy to be a part of was the ACG Building Systems Commissioning guideline which is, you know, currently free to building owners and facility
[email protected].
so that was something that we kind of Brought a like, mind of commissioning, you know, providers and experts to kind of give their opinions on topics and not just go over the process, but detail specific examples from electrical mechanical systems to kind of give you a thorough, you know, overall commissioning, you know, kind of handbook to help you with, you know, you know, if you're a facility manager, facility owner, understand what to expect in commissioning and stuff of that, you know, stuff of that nature. There's also the ACG's Essential Webinar Series that come out.
This starts this July to December 2024. So it's free to CX members and, you know, open to everyone to register. And then also, you know, this year we, we, we just concluded the CX Energy 2024 in San Diego.
So I'm looking, you know, look forward to seeing everybody at CX Energy 2025 in Charlotte, NC from April 28 to May 1.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Awesome. This has been a really great overview. Do you have anything else that you'd like to say before we kind of move on?
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Like, like I said, for me, just, you know, one thank you, you know, for, for the opportunity to, to come talk about existing buildings, a topic that I'm extremely passionate about and definitely want to, you know, we'll dive deeper in future webinars and presentations from that. But, you know, and also, you know, I want to thank, you know, the cs. CSE been a part of it, you know, and enjoy the magazines and the subscriptions that, that come. That come, you know, on a, on a monthly basis.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Well, great. Thank you. That means a lot to us.
So now that we've kind of wrapped up with all of this, something a little more fun. Can you tell me a little bit about what you like to do outside of when you're working, even though it seems you're very busy with work?
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Ah, yeah. So I mean, one of my favorite things to do is travel. So fortunately for my, you know, fortunately with commissioning, we get to travel, travel all over, you know, all, all over the, I guess the US and, and now we have a couple international projects. So that's cool. But me personally, last year was my first year time going to Italy and Greece. So my goal is to kind of expand more out of just the Americas and kind of, you know, visit every, every country in the world. So that's a goal. We have a, have a little map and every, every time put stick a pin in it. So hopefully by, you know, within the next 10 to 20 years, I can say I've been everywhere.
So I think that's one of the biggest things. And then me, personally, I'm just big into sports. I'm a Philly fan, so I love Eagles, Sixers, Flyers in Philly. So hopefully, you know, maybe this year is the year we, we win it all. And then I'm Abby. You know, I love boxing and basketball, so those are kind of the big things that keep me busy and keep me sane, you know, when I'm not working.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah, those are all. Those are all really great things. I personally am very jealous that you went to Greece and don't have much to say about the sports side of it, especially not Philly sports. But for your sake, I hope you win something great. Well, thank you again so, so much for being here. This has been a really wonderful conversation.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: No problem.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: And to our audience, thank you for being here. And for any more information on commissioning or energy savings, visit us at Consulting Specifying Engineer at www.c.emag. com. Don't forget to come back every other Tuesday for a new episode of Podcast. Thanks and talk to you next time.
