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.