Small Building Re-tuning Resources
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a number of useful resources to help re-tune small (<100,000 sf) commercial buildings without building automation systems (BASs):
Small Building Re-tuning Resources
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a number of useful resources to help re-tune small (<100,000 sf) commercial buildings without building automation systems (BASs):
Small Building Re-tuning Classroom Training Material
The U.S. Department of Energy's PNNL has developed a building re-tuning process to detect energy savings opportunities and implement improvements in commercial buildings. This training is focused on small commercial buildings, to help identify energy savings opportunities, thus making the building more efficient and reduce operating costs. PNNL has developed this train-the-trainer instructor manual, to help qualify more re-tuning course trainers.
Purpose of the Small Building Re-tuning Training Course
The purpose of this course is to help building operations staff to learn how to operate buildings more efficiently, reduce operating cost and provide energy savings. The knowledge and skills learned through the training will be highly valued by organizations and companies seeking to improve the performance of their buildings.
Intended Audience for the Small Building Re-tuning Course
The intended audience for the building re-tuning training includes:
- onsite employees responsible for day-to-day building operations,
- offsite contractors (retro-commissioning agents or control vendors) hired to improve a building's energy efficiency, and
- people interested in entering this field, including college students and military veterans.
The focus is on small (<100,000 sf) commercial buildings that do not have BASs. These buildings have packaged units for heating and cooling with simple air distribution, and are controlled by a zone thermostat. Many of the recommendations for small building re-tuning are prescriptive. However, for buildings that do have a BAS, some of the concepts and techniques presented can still be applied.
Small Building Re-tuning Training Material
A set of three files used for the small building re-tuning classroom training are provided in portable document format (PDF). Click on the PDF link to download the selected file.
Chapter 1: Understand the purpose of re-tuning, definition of small building re-tuning and what to expect from the re-tuning training class.
Chapter 2: Understand and collect building information necessary for re-tuning (building walk down).
Chapter 3: Identify and implement re-tuning measures.
Small Building Re-tuning Resources
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a number of useful resources to help re-tune small (<100,000 sf) commercial buildings without building automation systems (BASs):
Small Building Re-tuning Training Instructor Manual
PNNL also developed an instructors' manual that provides additional information on what to highlight in each of the small building re-tuning slides. The manual is targeted for instructors providing small building re-tuning training or teaching small building re-tuning to community college students focusing on building operations. The manual is intended for lecture and discussion, and also provides information on how to conduct hands-on in-the-field training. Each page in the main portion of the guide is a representation of a training slide. Below each slide are talking points and notes to the instructors.
Small Building Re-tuning Resources
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a number of useful resources to help re-tune small (<100,000 sf) commercial buildings without building automation systems (BASs):
Small Building Re-tuning Primer
To help building owners, building managers, and their operations staff address this issue, PNNL and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed a building re-tuning training curriculum to identify inefficient operations, detect energy savings opportunities, and implement improvements. Re-tuning is a systematic process of identifying and correcting operational problems at no or low cost. Re-tuning instructional materials have been developed for two general categories of commercial buildings: (1) large commercial buildings with building automation systems (BASs) and (2) small- to medium-sized commercial buildings without BASs.
Because the re-tuning training for buildings without BASs is intended for a diverse audience, some participants may need additional background information to understand concepts presented in the training. This document provides background information specifically geared toward small- to medium-sized commercial building operations. It introduces basic building energy terminology associated with building energy use to "prime" targeted participants to get the most out of the building re-tuning training. The intent is for participants who are less familiar with the concepts to review this material before taking the building re-tuning training class.