Guidance for evaluating and improving the performance of commercial buildings throughout their service life is available in a new book from ASHRAE.
Funded in part through a grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Performance Measurement Procedures for Commercial Buildings: Best Practices Guide” provides tools and techniques for measuring, managing, and improving the performance of a facility in the areas of energy use, water use, and four elements of indoor environmental quality—thermal comfort, indoor-air quality, lighting/daylighting, and acoustics—on an ongoing basis.
The guide presents step-by-step procedures at three process levels of performance (e.g., for energy use: basic evaluation, diagnostic measurement, and advanced analysis), which are intended to match the level of cost and intensity of effort for a range of types and sizes of facilities. An accompanying CD contains a report template and standardized forms, worksheets, and checklists for use in implementing the procedures.
“This is the book that facility managers, building operators, technicians, consultants, commissioning authorities, architects, and design engineers need to ensure that their buildings are green, energy-efficient, highly productive, healthy, and attractive to others,” Jim Bochat, chair of the project committee that wrote the book, said. “This guide gives building owners and their consultants the practical performance-measurement guidance to meet market demands for keeping operating costs down without sacrificing the health, comfort, and productivity of their highest-cost component: the building’s occupants.”
The book is a companion to the 2010 publication “Performance Measurement Protocols for Commercial Buildings,” which identifies what to measure, how to measure it, and how often it is to be measured for inclusion in a building’s operation-and-maintenance plans.
The cost of “Performance Measurement Procedures for Commercial Buildings: Best Practices Guide” is $84 for ASHRAE members and $99 for non-members. Copies can be ordered by phone at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400, by fax at 678-539-2129, or online at www.ashrae.org/bookstore.