A Guide for Specifying Performance Monitoring Systems in Commercial and Institutional Buildings

This paper describes a guide for specifying performance monitoring systems that was developed as part of jointly funded CEC PIER-DOE project intended to assist commercial and institutional building owners in specifying what is required to obtain the information necessary to initiate and sustain an ongoing commissioning activity. The project's goal was to facilitate the delivery of specific performance related information to the benefit of both commissioning providers and building operators. A number of large-building owners were engaged in order to help create 'market pull' for performance monitoring while producing a specification that met their needs. The specification guide and example specification language addresses four key aspects of performance monitoring:

• performance metrics
• measurement system requirements
• data acquisition and archiving
• data visualization and reporting

The paper describes key aspects of the guide including how measurement accuracy requirements relate to the performance metrics that are used in both troubleshooting and routine reporting. Guide development activities and related tech-transfer efforts are also presented.