Retro and on-going commissioning tool applied to an existing building: Operability and results of IPMVP

The new building thermal regulations, mainly published to reduce greenhouse gases emissions, leads to a continuous improvement of building envelopes. On the other hand, the technical performance of the air-conditioning plants, ensured by commissioning procedures, becomes a key point for the control of energy needs in buildings. The essential work of Annex 40 of the International Agency of the Energy reports on “Commissioning of Building HVAC systems for Improved Energy Performance”. In this annex, the test of the IPMVP, International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol, which is a significant and commonly used tool, is carried out among many others. This paper aims to present and detail the methodology of the IPMVP application and the results of four different calculation options applied to an existing building equipped with an innovative HVAC device, where outdoor airflow rate is controlled by indoor CO₂ rate. This work provides a helpful advice to the energy service company to determine the most adequate option in terms of accuracy, cost and speed of execution according to the available parameters (measurements, software) and the energy saving measure.