CALGreen Commissioning Requirements

[RLGA]

For those in California or those who do projects in California, I have a question regarding CALGreen Section 5.410.2.

The provision states that "New buildings 10,000 square feet and over" require building commissioning. They do not use the term conditioned floor area defined in CALGreen Chapter 2, nor do they use the building area defined in CBC Chapter 2. They do not even use "enclosed area." How has the 10,000 square foot threshold been interpreted?

The reason I ask is that I have a building with a conditioned floor area of less than 4,000 sq. ft., but when you add exterior covered areas (extension of the roof) and unconditioned storage areas, the area exceeds 10,000 sq. ft. Am I required to provide building commissioning or not? The project is a golf course clubhouse, so I do not think Exception 2 would apply.

 

[e hilton]

Not in Calif.
If it's not conditioned space, how would you commission it?

 

[RLGA]

Not in Calif.
If it's not conditioned space, how would you commission it?

I agree, but that is not what the code says. I technically have a building with an area greater than 10,000 sq. ft. by building code definition, but they did not say "building area." They also did not say "conditioned area" or "enclosed area" -- so how do they expect people to understand what they mean?

Logically, you would think with a 3,000+ condition area the requirement would not apply, but, then again, this is California...

 

[Yikes]

The intent of commissioning in CalGreen is to effectively realize the design goals of sustainability via energy efficiency. Therefore the commissioning threshold is based on the area of conditioned space. This interpretation is consistent with the California Energy Code thresholds.

 

[RLGA]

The intent of commissioning in CalGreen is to effectively realize the design goals of sustainability via energy efficiency. Therefore the commissioning threshold is based on the area of conditioned space. This interpretation is consistent with the California Energy Code thresholds.

Thank you. So it seems that commissioning would not be required for my project.

 

[Yikes]

I'm saying that's my option and also how I've seen it interpreted on a couple of projects. I agree that Cal Green is vague and "your mileage may vary" in relation to other plan checkers.
Cal Green 5.410.2 offers exceptions for "unconditioned warehouses; conditioned offices less than 10,000 SF within unconditioned warehouses; open parking structures, etc. and the AHJ's I've seen so far have interpreted this liberally to infer that it's the conditioned spaces that are subject to commissioning.

Adding to the ambiguity is that CalGreen says the intent of commissioning is to "verify that the building systems and components meet the owner's or owner representative's project requirements". That is so open-ended as to be incomprehensible from a code application standpoint. There is no code definition of "building systems" or "components". However, one can infer that commissioning is limited to those components related to the Owner's Project Requirements (5.410.2.1) which are at a minimum:

• Environmental and sustainability goals.
• Building sustainable goals.
• Indoor environmental quality requirements.
• Project program, including facility functions and hours of operation, and need for after hours operation.
• Equipment and systems expectations.
• Building occupant and operation and maintenance (O&M) personnel expectations.

Back to your golf clubhouse: If you consider the storage areas are functioning as unconditioned warehouse, and that the covered exterior areas do not have sustainability goals, indoor quality goals, equipment and systems or maintenance expectations, etc., then it can be inferred there are no Owne'rs Project Requirements for these areas and thus no commissioning of those areas will be required. This is not a "bright line" rule, it has to be determined on a case-by-case basis.