Re-Co is the process of re-optimizing existing buildings that have already been commissioned. It aims to ensure that building equipment and systems are operating at their best to meet the current needs of occupants. This exercise provides guidelines and examples of how to select appropriate buildings for the Re-Co activities. Participants will also learn how to justify why certain buildings are suitable candidates for the Re-Co activities and how to rank them. This exercise will also provide efficient tips on how to identify typical mistakes that influence energy performance (incomplete installation of equipment, inappropriate settings of the control devices, etc.).

For any activity related to the energy performance assessment - planning and preparation are crucial phases. The planning activities in the framework of the Re-Co should be documented in the form of a work plan, which should also be shared with the owner/users prior to visiting the building to carry out the intended work. The work plan must outline which part of the building is to be visited, the purpose of the visit, the documentation and data required, and the necessary personnel to be involved. This exercise will provide guidelines and examples of how to create a realistic Re-CO implementation plan with a focus on educational buildings. Additionally, participants will learn how to incorporate measurement and verification activities within the Re-Co implementation plan.

This exercise will provide a set of examples of Re-Co measures that can be extracted from the energy management data. Participants will also be informed about the content of the Re-Co report. The exact content of the report shall always be adjusted based on the complexity of the inspected and evaluated systems. Also, this exercise will provide practical and effective tips on how to inspect existing metering infrastructure, create simple and reliable metering plans and enable target setting. On-site metering is important because it provides first-hand information on energy performance. 

This exercise will describe a systematic quality-oriented process that improves the performance and sustainability of existing HVAC systems. The step-by-step process for getting the best effectiveness from facilities for the lowest investment and ensuring durable benefits will be described. Common best practices will also be presented. The exercise will analyze, starting from a measured set of data related to a technical building sub-system and comparing it with both the technical sheet properties and the building needs. An additional element of the exercise will be focused on the assessment of the indoor environmental quality, analyzing the different aspects such as thermal, acoustic, and lighting comfort.

This exercise will provide examples of how to conduct Re-Co activities connected with the electric power system in order to improve the performance of the equipment and system as a whole. Performance assessment of a building’s electric power systems should not focus only on the efficiency of individual devices because, in such a case, most of the opportunities for performance improvement will remain undetected. This exercise will also tackle the following performance improvement opportunities: tariff system analysis, load management and demand control, power factor correction, and power quality indicators.

In order to design and propose the proper retrofitting strategies (for both refurbishments and optimization of the building systems), a robust baseline of the building shall be defined and presented to buildings’ owners and managers. This exercise is aimed at proposing for a real building, through a case study approach, the baseline definition for the energy and water consumption as a chronological sequence of steps according to EN 16247-1 and EN 16247-2 from the data collection phase to the report elaboration, and the comparison against the proper benchmarks. This exercise will also focus on the quality check of input data, calculation assumptions for simulating the building performance, visualization and communication of the analysis output.

Re-Co activities can be considered as part of energy audit where the main emphasis is on identification of low-cost energy efficiency measures which can be implemented during the implementation of energy audit. This exercise will provide an example of how to calculate and verify energy savings triggered by Re-Co activities. Participants will learn how to specify continuous re-commissioning using energy management system functionalities and how to create the measurement and verification plan based on Re-Co activities in a nursery home.

This exercise will focus on the dynamics of the data collection for the calculation of the SRI and it will provide examples how it can be connected with the re-commissioning activities. In this context, re-commissioning activities are seen as elements of a quality-oriented process for achieving, verifying, and documenting whether the performance of a building’s systems and equipment still meet originally defined objectives and criteria. Participants will learn how they can utilize the data collection process for calculation of SRI to understanding cause-effect relationships between various systems and how to properly interpret collected, calculated and measured data and evaluate performance.

This exercise will provide hands-on experience in creating short and long-term plans for implementing improvements in building energy efficiency using enhanced EPC. It will also empower participants to understand the key components and considerations involved in creating short and long-term plans for implementing improvements in building energy efficiency, and how to use the enhanced EPC to identify and prioritize energy efficiency improvements in a building. Participants will be provided with a case study of a specific building prior to the exercise. Two case studies are pre-selected and involve public school and private residential buildings.