Houses are complex systems of interacting components that don’t always perform properly. Even when built or retrofitted using formal design procedures, houses often fail to meet health, safety, comfort, and energy-use expectations. A major reason for this generally poor performance is the lack of consistent procedures to ensure that a home is built and operated in the way it was intended.

Residential commissioning combines components and system testing with changes to improve home energy efficiency and comfort. Many good commissioning elements are already practiced in some fashion, but they don’t deal with the house as a system, and therefore don’t fully consider parallel issues of energy consumption, peak power, thermal comfort, and pollutant control. “Guidelines for Residential Commissioning,” a report prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the California Energy Commission, integrates many available procedures into a comprehensive process that considers the house as a whole system. The guide also provides examples that demonstrate the benefits of whole-house commissioning.