Marflow Hydronic Systems has introduced a concept of ‘continuous commissioning’ for fan coil and chilled beam systems that has the potential to build an ongoing relationship between commissioning engineers and building owners.
“At the moment, once a system has been commissioned and handed over, there is very rarely any further contact between commissioning engineers and building owners,” explains Marflow’s Martin Lowe. “Even when the building changes, the systems are often left in their original configuration, wasting energy and compromising comfort conditions – and leaving a potential market for commissioning engineers untapped.
“Marflow has pioneered the use of Pressure Independent Control Valves (PICVs) that can be remotely adjusted via a BMS or BACnet system, making it quick and easy to reconfigure the systems at any time. We are finding this encourages building owners to re-commission and optimise their systems on a regular basis, in response to change or to accommodate renewable technologies. We also believe that this creates an ideal opportunity for commissioning engineers to generate ongoing work with their customers,” Lowe continued.
The continuous commissioning system enables water flows to be quickly and easily rechecked and reconfigured quickly and with minimum disruption to the building occupier – thus removing key barriers to more frequent re-commissioning. The appropriate systems can also be retrofitted to existing systems relatively simply and have the potential to save considerable amounts of energy.
Continuous commissioning also facilitates the introduction of low or zero carbon heat sources, such as heat pumps, as water flows can be very easily adjusted in line with changing water temperatures. An additional benefit is the ability to open the valves fully occasionally, for a short period, to flush through any debris and reduce maintenance costs and failures.