Study of maintenance of High Performance Sustainable Buildings (HPSB)

A study was performed by the Energy Branch of the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, on behalf of the US Army Installation Management Command under the Installation Technology Transition Program. The focus of the study was related to maintainability and operability issues associated with High Performance Sustainable Buildings (HPSBs). This study was conducted primarily based on information gleaned from telephone and web conference discussions with installation Directorate of Public Works personnel including Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Chiefs, energy managers, maintenance supervisors, and maintenance technicians. Experiences with HPSBs varied from installation to installation. For example, some installations had very positive experiences with photovoltaic (PV) arrays while other sites questioned their practicality due to maintainability problems. One site noted that PV technologies are changing so rapidly that procuring spare/repair parts becomes difficult or impossible when vendors discontinue supporting their older technologies or manufacturers go out of business. Based on discussions with the installation O&M personnel, a table of pro and con recommendations for 25 technologies, which are commonly implemented on HPSBs, was prepared and is included in this report.