ATLANTA, GA — The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has proposed a new guideline. ASHRAE Guideline OP, “The Commissioning Process,” has been opened for public comment and will remain open until Sept. 23, 2002.

According to ASHRAE, implementation of the commissioning process outlined in the proposed guideline should result in reduced capital and life-cycle costs for facilities. The guideline will also describe the process that will verify that a facility and its systems meet the owner’s project requirements.

Once approved, the guideline will be used by the National Institute for Building Sciences as its “Total Building Commissioning Process Guideline.”

“Using this integrated process results in owners receiving the expected, including a fully functional, fine-tuned facility,” said Charles Dorgan, Ph.D., P.E., chair of the committee writing the guideline. “It ensures complete documentation of systems and assemblies and trained operating and maintenance personnel.”

For further details on the guideline, go to www.ashrae.org (website).

Publication date: 09/16/2002