How Much Does Building Commissioning Save?

With energy costs continuing to climb, building owners and facility managers are increasingly looking for proven methods to reduce consumption without sacrificing performance. Building commissioning (Cx) has emerged as one of the most effective approaches, delivering substantial returns that extend far beyond the initial investment. Our course Proper Commissioning (Cx) for all Building Types & Technologies provides professionals with comprehensive knowledge of this critical process for residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities.

In this excerpt from the course, HeatSpring instructor Khaled Yousef breaks down the compelling financial case for building commissioning. As you’ll see, commissioning shouldn’t be viewed as an added expense—it’s an investment with serious returns that extend far beyond energy savings alone. 

Let’s hear why experts insist that “the cost of building commissioning is less than the cost of not commissioning.”

Transcript below.

How much does commissioning save? I tried to look at some references here, because I was very concerned on a national level in the United States how much are we losing every year in terms of energy efficiency, in terms of productivity, because of improper commissioning in many buildings here. 

One of the references here says – it’s an old one, I’m sorry for that – but it says $3 to 17 billion dollars a year. It was published in 2004. There are a lot more than that right now. If I were to guesstimate this – and I’m sure there are studies for this – but we’re talking about billions of dollars, based on what I’ve witnessed myself in many large institutional facilities, university campuses, factories, and hospitals. We’re wasting a lot of energy in the U.S. Much of it is controls-based. 

The reasons mentioned here in this study here by Lawrence Berkey National Labs are obvious ones. 

You can see here… 

Duct leakage.

HVAC system operates continuously during unoccupied periods. Simple stuff. 

Lighting system illuminating space during unoccupied periods. How many times do you walk by a facility that’s basically closed at 7 or 8 pm and the lights are blasting on for a few hours after that?

HVAC system improperly balanced. That’s why I talk about testing and balancing.

Improper refrigerant charge.  

Economizer dampers operating incorrectly. Whether it’s airside, water side, enthalpy, dry bulb. 

Insufficient evaporator flow.

Improper control setup/commission. 

Control component failure or degradation. Well, you have to maintain your systems. A component could fail and could cost you thousands of dollars over the years. 

Software programming errors. This is a very serious problem here. You have a control system intended to do something, but the programmer doesn’t program it as intended and doesn’t test the programming to deliver the operation that was intended for it, so that was a major issue here with the software programming.

Improper controls, hardware installation.

Air-cooled condenser fouling.

And valve leakage. 

As you can see here, those are just 13 general categories.  Many of them are quite obvious,  but they cost us $20 billion a year – or more in my opinion.