Where the Commissioning Rubber Meets the Road: Building Enclosure Performance Testing

Building enclosure commissioning is a quality assurance process that focuses on verifying that building enclosures meet the owner’s requirements for performance. Although the process requires the building enclosure commissioning agent be involved in the project during both design and construction for maximum effect, one of the most impactful roles of the building enclosure commissioning authority is overseeing the construction phase performance testing of the various components of the building enclosure. Selecting the appropriate tests to perform and the test procedures, understanding the limitations of the tests, knowing how to interpret results, and identifying key times to perform the tests are critical to successfully implementing building enclosure commissioning. This session provides a review of the most popular and effective performance tests and examples from building enclosure commissioning projects to show how selecting the appropriate testing regime can aid in building enclosure commissioning and how inappropriate testing can hinder the process.

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