Beyond expensive building and equipment upgrades and retrofits, re-commissioning (analogous to performing a comprehensive tune-up on your car) and automated fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) for building systems offer significant energy efficiency opportunities in commercial buildings.

With Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems attributed to 40-50% of commercial building energy consumption (46 Mt CO2-eq. p.a.) in Australia (Pitt & Sherry, 2012), FDD tools and services are driving energy savings and emissions reductions, in addition to improved maintenance practices and outcomes from commercial building HVAC systems and more recently other building energy systems. 

With numerous commercial offerings and delivery models for FDD solutions available in the Australian market, it is often difficult for potential customers and end users to determine which solutions offer the most value considering factors such as implementation cost, ease of use, energy savings, improved maintenance practises and outcomes, and ultimately improved comfort and productivity of the building occupants.

The scope of this project was to undertake a rigorous and systematic independent evaluation of the potential benefits of automated FDD solutions delivered as a managed service in Australia. The intent of the evaluation is to encourage greater uptake of FDD tools and services in Australia by assisting building owners, operators and HVAC&R maintenance contractors to evaluate and select their preferred FDD solution for future roll-out across their respective building or portfolio, therefore significantly increasing the energy efficiency of commercial building stock in Australia.

The main objective of this Final Report (Part I), is to highlight key benefits and outcomes made possible through the implementation and ongoing use of automated FDD solutions in Australian commercial building stock. A subsequent confidential report (Part II) will provide an objective performance evaluation of some of the leading FDD solutions in Australia.