What is Commissioning? 

Commissioning is a quickly growing and increasingly recognized service that covers either new construction, or the installation of new equipment, systems, or assemblies in a building. This service is being embraced in both the public and private sectors because the services are typically geared to the building owner's needs and goals. As a result, the outcome of the commissioning process typically yields a more efficient building, resulting in lower operations and maintenance costs.  Commissioning ensures that the new building operates as the owner initially intended and that the building staff are prepared to operate and maintain its systems and equipment. 

What is Retro-Commissioning? 

Retro-commissioning is a collaborative process that looks at how and why a building’s systems are operated and maintained, and then identifies ways to improve overall building performance.  Like Commissioning, Retro-Commissioning is a quickly growing and increasingly recognized service. Retro-commissioning can often resolve problems that occurred during the building design or construction phase, or address problems that have occurred during the building’s life.   

The Benefits of the Commissioning and Retro-Commissioning Process:

Both Commissioning and Retro-Commissioning can benefit a building owner in a number of ways.  Through retro-commissioning, whole building energy use may often be reduced by an average of 15 percent.  Reducing operating costs helps to maintain high occupancy rates, reduces tenant turnover, and enables an owner to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.  A building’s indoor environmental quality affects the health, comfort, and productivity of its occupants.  Retro-commissioning can help identify and address problems that can lead to serious consequences and future liability.  Finally, retro-commissioning improves system performance, increases equipment life, and reduces the need for repairs, which can save money and result in fewer occupant complaints.   

Our Approach:

Pinnacle Energy strives to produce quality and need-focused results to all commissioning and retro-commissioning projects. Our process will verify and document that all commissioned building systems, components and assemblies are designed, planned, tested, operated and maintained to meet the specific project requirements of each job. 

Our Goals:

The primary goal of any commissioning project is to ensure that a clear facility requirement is defined for the building, equipment or assembly. This facility requirement is best understood as its "mission". At Pinnacle Energy, our goal is to do everything necessary and possible to ensure that this "mission" is successfully completed from the first day of operation to the last. Accordingly, our goals are to:

1. Deliver buildings and construction projects that meet the owner's needs. 

2. Prevent or eliminate problems inexpensively through proactive quality techniques.

3. Verify systems are installed and working correctly and benchmark correct operation.

4. Lower overall first costs and life-cycle costs for the owner. 

5. Provide documentation and records on the design, construction, and testing to facilitate operation and maintenance of the facility.

6. Implement trend logs, automated and semi-automated commissioning (Cx) and retro-commissioning (RCx) tools to enable operation and maintenance (O&M) staff to successfully complete ongoing commissioning (Cx) and retro-commissioning.

7. Maintain facility performance for the building's entire life cycle.