Overview
Commissioning is traditionally the last activity on a construction programme, which means it inherits every delay that came before it. By the time the commissioning engineer arrives, the float is gone, the handover date has not moved, and any defect found is a defect discovered at the worst possible moment.
Early commissioning inverts that. The commissioning strategy is written during design, the commissionability of the installation is reviewed before it is built, and testing begins as sections of plant become available rather than waiting for the whole building. Problems appear while there is still programme, still access, and still a contractor on site with an obligation to fix them.
ProMech provides early commissioning and Integrated Systems Testing across Northern Ireland, Dublin and London, working to CIBSE Commissioning Codes and BSRIA commissioning guidance.
Our Process
- 1
Commissioning plan and responsibility matrix
Written at design stage, not at practical completion. Who commissions what, in what order, witnessed by whom, against which acceptance criteria. Most commissioning failures are ownership failures rather than technical ones.
- 2
Design review for commissionability
We read the drawings looking for what will obstruct commissioning later: missing test points, no regulating valves, inaccessible dampers, circuits that cannot be isolated. Cheap to fix on paper, expensive once installed.
- 3
Static completion and pre commissioning checks
Verifying that installation is genuinely finished before dynamic work starts. Systems flushed and filled, strainers clean, electrical supplies proven, controls loaded, valves accessible and labelled.
- 4
Component and subsystem testing
Individual plant items proven against their schedules: pumps, chillers, boilers, air handling units, valves and dampers. Faults found here are contained to one item rather than obscured inside a whole system test.
- 5
Regulation and balancing
Water and air systems regulated to design flow rates and recorded, to CIBSE Commissioning Code W for water distribution and Code A for air distribution.
- 6
Controls and sequence validation
Verifying that the control system does what the description of operation says, including setpoint response, staging, interlocks and fault modes, to CIBSE Commissioning Code C.
- 7
Integrated Systems Testing
The whole installation tested as one, including cause and effect across disciplines and failure scenarios such as loss of supply and changeover to standby. This is where interfaces between separately procured packages are proven, or found wanting.
- 8
Handover, records and training
Witnessed results, commissioning records, as installed performance data and operator familiarisation, issued as a pack the facilities team can actually use after the contractor leaves site.
What Early Involvement Prevents
Uncommissionable installations
Systems built without test points, regulating valves or access. Nothing can be measured or regulated, and the remedy is cutting into finished work.
Compressed programme at the end
Commissioning squeezed into the last fortnight because earlier trades overran, producing a handover backed by incomplete records.
Unowned interfaces
Two packages that each assume the other is commissioning the link between them, so nobody does until IST exposes it.
Defects found after occupation
Faults surfacing once the building is live, when correcting them means disruption to occupants rather than a site visit.
Documentation gaps at handover
Missing witnessed results and performance data, leaving the facilities team with no baseline to maintain the building against.
Systems that drift immediately
Plant never properly regulated, so energy use is above design from day one and nobody has the original figures to notice.
Standards & Compliance
- CIBSE Commissioning Code M, commissioning management
- CIBSE Code W and Code A, water and air distribution systems
- CIBSE Code C, automatic controls
- BSRIA BG 8, model commissioning plan
- CDM 2015 site safety protocols
Industries We Serve
- Data centres, where IST is the handover gate
- Pharmaceutical, validation driven handover
- Healthcare, resilient services in live estates
- Commercial and public sector, new build and major refurbishment