In this episode we discuss how to estimate, schedule and prepare to support test and balance in our building automation projects.
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Transcript
Phil Zito 0:00
This is the smart buildings Academy podcast with Phil Zito episode 293. Hey folks, Phil Zito here and welcome to episode 293 of the smart buildings Academy podcast. And in this episode, we're going to be talking about working with test and balance, we're going to discuss what test imbalances, how you work with them, what you need to be aware of the different types and levels of work that
Phil Zito 0:23
you could be doing with them, and a bunch of other stuff. Alright, so quick update, we are hiring yet again, we're looking for a third corporate account exec to hire I've to cover rather, either our Midwest or North East regions. So if you are looking for a company where you can make a difference, you can have at least I, I think we're a pretty enjoyable culture and a enjoyable group of folks. And you can go to work every day, making a difference, kind of being the master of your own destiny, and selling something that really is beneficial to folks. I mean, we're changing people's lives, we're helping people create their careers, and helping companies succeed and grow. So if that sounds interesting to you, and you're based in the United States, and you have building automation experience, and you think you would like to sell our services to our customers, then reach out to us, you can reach out to just support at smart buildings academy.com That would be the easiest way. Just contact us there and let us know. Okay, let's talk about testing balance. So test in balance, what is it? Well, the what it is, is in the name, it's testing to make sure systems are performing according to their design parameters, and then balancing out those unperformed aspects of the systems. Now this primarily has to do with air sight and hydronic systems. So when you think about a central utility plant, you think about a chiller right, that chiller has a tonnage capacity ton of cooling capacity. And it distributes that ton of cooling capacity via you know, gallons per minute waterflow. This water flows throughout the building, it goes into coils and goes through valves to get to these coils. And at the end of the day, these coils then absorb the BT use from the air stream and transfer them into the chilled water return which then flows back to the chiller and either gets released atmosphere via you know, just some radiator plates or via cooling tower if it's water cooled chiller. Alright, so pretty straightforward how central utility plants work, right? Well, how do we know that these coils are getting the right water flow? How do we know that the valves aren't being starved or aren't demanding too much water? How do we know that the pumps are flowing? How do we know that the temperatures are accurate? How do we know all of this information? And then you cascade that down to airflow? How do we know that our vav boxes are supplying the right amount of air out the diffusers and that they're at the right mins and maxes for their box size. How do you know? Well how indeed is through testing balance. The test and balance folks are going to typically be a another contractor. Although I have seen building automation companies do test to balance themselves. I myself have used a test and balance devices to do test amounts on hydronic and airside systems. Normally, normally, you are trained and accredited or sorry certified as a test unbalanced person to go and do it. In my case, this was service so we were just using this to kind of get a measurement of existing sites and understand were they out of whack or not, you know, within performance standards. So test them balance is going to come up with a test and balance plan and this is gonna sound very familiar when we get into our next episode, which is commissioning agents where we're going to hear about a commissioning plan. So test mounts is going to come up with a plan and they are going to execute this plan. And the level of support you are required to give is going to typically be in either section one or section three of the specification. Typically section three and it is going to say alright, you need to provide this level of support you need to go and give 16 hours of support you need to allocate to people they need to have micro or walkie talkies to talk to one another. You need to provide the tools so that the test unbalanced person can log into your system and actually go in calibrate things. So there's a variety of levels of required skill in order or required skill skills, not the right word required. Support support would be the right word, there's a level of required support. And that's going to vary from contract to contract, I've seen somewhere, you literally have to dedicate someone to walk around with a test and balance person all the time. And then I've seen others where you just set up the graphics, with the parameters for tuning,
Phil Zito 5:32
your CFM, tuning, your flow, your set points, etc. And then once you have those set, you are once you have those graphics set, you just hand it off the test and balance and you give maybe four hours of training, and they're off to the races. Now one way is not necessarily better than the other, although I do prefer creating some graphics training tests and bounce for a couple hours and letting them have at it. But you can see either way, working out, the thing is that if you don't understand what way you're required to support test mounts, this can lead to not properly scheduling your projects, this can lead to miss estimates and labor, etc. So testing, balance, support and commissioning support are two of the big areas that I see newer estimators miss out on from a pricing perspective, and newer project managers miss out on from a scheduling perspective. So at the end of the day, it's going to come down to you going and figuring out what test and balance support do I need to provide? How do I need to provide it? How much do I need to provide? When do I need to provide it? If you can answer those four questions, you're going to be well prepared. Supporting testing balance is not going to be difficult. It really should not be I mean, at the end of the day, there's only so many things we're going to have to change and those are going to be you know RC FM's on our airside systems, our duck static pressure setpoint on our air side systems are building static pressure, and potentially changing some of the rotation of our valves and actuators. If those things were improperly installed, you know, testing bounds usually will catch that. And they will request that be fixed. But not too bad. Not like what we're gonna see when we talk about an episode 294 on commissioning agents, because commissioning is where you can kind of lose your shirt, it's where you can lose a lot of money. If you don't properly manage expectations, especially if you have full total commissioning with an owner's rep. Yeah, man that can get real nasty, you can end up dumping six figures worth of labor into a project that you did not properly estimate for. So testing balance at the end of the day. All the the sole purpose of it is just to make sure that water is flowing where it's supposed to flow. air is flowing, where it's supposed to flow and in the right amounts. If you keep that in mind, and you understand the kind of systems thinking and if you don't have systems thinking go back to our HVAC episode where we went through HVAC systems, actually, it was a series, we went through it across multiple episodes. Go back to that, listen to that. And that will really help. Alright, I know shorter episode. But I mean, there's really not that much more to say about testing balance, I'm sure test balance, folks would argue that there's a lot to say. But we're looking at it from a building automation perspective. If you all want a episode on how to perform test and balance in your feeling squirrely, I once again, I really don't recommend that you get into that line of work. It's just not as profitable when you've already got the building automation part down in my opinion. But it is really good skill to have for service. But if you all want an episode on test mounts, like how do I perform it? How do I do that? We could do that. Maybe I'll pull in a test and balance expert from one of the major tab firms and we'll have them walk through it. Let me know if that's of interest just let us know in the comments or shoot us an email. Thanks ton. I'll see you in the next episode. Take care
