Commissioning study finds median energy savings of 3% to 16%

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released results of a study on building commissioning that found a median energy savings from 3% to 16%, depending on building type.

The study examined the cost of commissioning and resulting energy savings of 1,500 North American buildings across three decades. The study represents buildings totaling 34.7 million square meters (373 million sf) of floor area.

“Since 2009 the commissioning industry has continued to grow, driven by building codes, utility programs, and rising awareness of commissioning benefits,” the study notes. Over the course of the study, building controls have become more sophisticated, and analytics software has emerged to assist with commissioning.

Median primary energy savings for projects in existing buildings ranged from 5% for those conducted under utility programs, 9% for monitoring-based commissioning utility programs (e.g., augmented with submetering and diagnostics), and 14% for projects outside of utility programs.