Commissioning Code W: Water distribution systems

Chris Parsloe

• Publisher: The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781906846152
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Construction & Architectural Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Commissioning is of paramount importance as the ultimate test for proving the design and installation of building engineering services in practice and is a requirement of Part L of the Building Regulations.Commissioning is critical in achieving the safe, energy and carbon efficient and effective operation of hydraulic systems through correct circuit balancing of the distributions and components.Proper commissioning enables engineering systems to operate at optimum performance providing the building users with good quality internal environments. As set out in Approved Document L2A, effective from 1st October 2010, The Building Regulations require that 'notice of completion should be given to the relevant Building Control Body (BCB) confirming that: -a. A commissioning plan has been followed so that every system has been inspected and commissioned in an appropriate sequence and to a reasonable standard; andb. The results of tests confirm that the performance is reasonably in accordance with the actual building design, including written commentaries where excursions are proposed to be accepted.'Furthermore 'until BCB receives the commissioning notice it may not be able to be reasonably satisfied that Part L has been complied with and consequently is unlikely to be able to give a completion/final certificate for the project.'Designers and clients are encouraged to consider the requirements for commissioning at an early stage of the design of a project to ensure the statically completed installations may be fully checked and proved.This Code has been revised to ensure the most recent knowledge and experience for commissioning building engineering services is made available to practicing engineers. The decision to revise the code resulted from meeting of commissioning practitioners to consider whether this and the related BSRIA application guide should be updated. Key issues identified were: • Difficulties in commissioning heating systems with low flow rates, particularly fan coil units.• The need to review and clarify the tolerance tables in the light of recent experiences. The revision has been based on Commissioning Code W: 2003 and recognises the need to preserve much of the current format and arrangement enabling it to be used for new and ongoing projects without the need to modify the existing contract documents or procedures.The code describes the requirements for commissioning building engineering services and compliments the BSRIA Application Guide BG2/2010 which describes how the commissioning is to be carried out. It is not intended practicing engineers should necessarily refer in specifications to the documents as a whole but that particular references from the Codes may be incorporated in the contract documents thereby providing bespoke definitions applicable to the functional content of the project.The preparation of this Code has been the responsibility of a Joint Steering Committee enabling the content of the CIBSE and BSRIA documents to be fully co-ordinated and integrated. This Code is intended to be used in conjunction with BSRIA's Commissioning water systems Application Guide BG2/2010 procedures for buildings.

Table of contents

• Commissioning Code W Water distribution systems OFC
• Foreword
• Contents
• W0 Introduction
• W1 Safety issues
• W2 Design for commissionability
• W3 Specification issues
• W4 Commissioning project management
• W5 Pre-commissioning checks
• W6 Setting pumps to work
• W7 Balancing and regulating water flowrates
• W8 Evaluation and witnessing of commissioned systems
• References
• Appendix WA1: Design
• Appendix WA2: Flow measurement, regulation and differential pressure control
• Index