An open-source automated continuous condition-based maintenance platform for commercial buildings

Many studies have documented that retro-commissioning provides energy savings ranging between 10 and 30%; in some cases, more than 50% of a building's energy consumption. Over the past two decades, retro-commissioning has evolved from being mostly a manual process to using functional testing to a semi-automated process of using monitored data to identify operational problems. Many of the issues that the retro-commissioning process identifies relate to the inability to manage and maintain building systems and controls associated with those systems. Even though retro-commissioning has proven to be cost-effective, only a small fraction of the buildings are commissioned and many buildings that are commissioned only implement a fraction of recommend retro-commissioning actions. Two primary reasons for lack of interest in retro-commissioning is a perception that: (1) retro-commissioning is expensive and (2) many retro-commissioning measures lack persistence. Many cities in the United States are mandating that some of the commercial building stock be commissioned periodically. Automation and leveraging emerging building information modeling standards can alleviate many of the concerns of retro-commissioning by providing a mechanism for automated continuous condition-based maintenance. This article describes one such reference process that can be deployed to provide continuous automated condition-based maintenance management for buildings that have building information modeling, building automation systems, and computerized maintenance management software systems. The process can be deployed using an open-source transactional network platform, VOLTTRON™, designed for distributed sensing and controls and supports both energy efficiency and grid services.