Commissioning Building Enclosure Assemblies and Systems

Overview of the Commissioning Process

• ASHRAE Guideline 0-2013 and Standard 202-2013
• What is the commissioning process?
• What is a quality delivery process?
• ASHRAE/NIBS Guideline 0-2013
• What occurs in each phase of project delivery?
• Benefits of the commissioning process

Building Science Fundamentals

• The 2nd Law in layman’s terms
• Rain control
• Psychrometrics
• Water vapor transport
• Moisture control
• Interstitial condensation
• Confusion about diffusion
• Moisture and materials and sustainability
• Air transport
• Airflow control
• Pressures and IAQ
• Interaction with mechanical equipment
• Heat transfer
• Heat transfer control
• Thermal bridging
• ASHRAE Standard 160
• Moisture control design analysis
• Integrated design for the control of heat, air, and moisture
• Avoiding mistakes
• Learning from past successes and failures

The Building Enclosure Commissioning Process

• Commissioning process roles and responsibilities
• Pre-design phase commissioning activities
• The OPR and BOD
• The BECx plan
• Design and submittal reviews
• Construction phase verification
• The BECx test plan
• Systems manual requirements
• Owner training
• Lifetime persistence plan
• Close out report
• Overview of NIBS Guideline 3-2012
• Overview of LEED v4 EA Envelope Commissioning
• Overview of ASTM E2813
• Benefits and impact of BECx for stakeholders
• Staffing requirements and cost guidelines

Architectural Details and Interfaces

• Water barriers
• Air barriers and the importance of continuity
• Vapor barriers
• Impact of climate and geography
• Transition and interface details
• Walls and facades
• Flashings
• Windows and doors
• Curtain walls
• Roofs
• Slab on grade, foundations, and basement walls
• Sustainable assemblies/high performance details
• Coordination with other building systems and assemblies
• Enclosure penetrations

Building Enclosure Commissioning Tests

• The BECx test plan
• Test standards and guidelines
• Qualitative and quantitative tests
• Verification means and methods
• Performance criteria
• Laboratory tests
• Component, assembly, and whole building tests
• Water tests
• Air tests
• Mockups
• Testing roofs, flashing, and roof penetrations
• Testing walls, windows, and doors
• Testing penetrations
• Infra-red and whole building testing after construction

BECx Case Study

• Building description
• CxP plan and activities
• Construction sequence
• Construction checklists for BECx
• Mock-ups and constructability review
• Schedule
• Building performance and whole building testing
• Summary of scope of work and the close out report
• Examples of completed checklists and test results

Status of the Industry

Event Dates/Times:

• 11/10/2025  11:00am - 3:00pm Central Time
• 11/11/2025  11:00am - 3:00pm Central Time
• 11/12/2025  11:00am - 3:00pm Central Time
• 11/13/2025  11:00am - 5:00pm Central Time
• 11/14/2025  11:00am - 5:00pm Central Time

The enrollment and successful completion of this course will meet the eligibility requirements for the certification course, Building Enclosure Commissioning Certification Examination.  If you are interested in pursuing commissioning certification, consider enrolling in both these courses simultaneously. Alternatively, you may enroll in the certification course at a later date when it becomes available.

• Instructors

  Fiona Aldous

  Senior Principal

  Fiona Aldous is a Senior Principal with Wiss Janney Elstner Associates. She has performed comprehensive building enclosure commissioning on numerous new buildings and repaired a variety of existing building enclosures on projects throughout North America. Her hands-on experience includes design, detailing and installation of various high-performance enclosures, comprising curtain wall and window systems, air barriers, waterproofing of below-grade and plaza systems, low slope roofs and the interfaces of the various enclosure components. Fiona holds a post-graduate Master of Architecture, Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Science degrees. She was a prime author of the BECx industry's founding document, NIBS/ASHRAE Guideline 3 - The Building Enclosure Commissioning Process. She actively serves on ASHRAE technical committees. Is past convener of ISO21105, Performance of Buildings — Building enclosure thermal performance verification and commissioning document. Fiona has authored articles and papers, taught classes and provided presentations on various aspects of the building enclosure and commissioning in the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia.

  Ian McIntosh

  Program Director

  Dr. Ian McIntosh, PhD, CxM, is a program director for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Office of Interdisciplinary Professional Programs (InterPro). He joined the InterPro Facilities and Building Systems team in December 2020 after being a frequent lecturer and course developer for the previous 20 years. His responsibilities include teaching, directing and business development for commissioning certification courses related to project management, existing buildings, and building enclosures. He is also the owner and founder of ianTEACH LLC, which provides innovative and strategic performance-based training and coaching to engineers, architects, construction and facilities management professionals in various sectors of the national building industry.

  He is an Accredited Commissioning Process Manager (CxM) with over twenty years of dedicated experience in Total Building Commissioning (a quality process) and has managed numerous energy, commissioning, retro-commissioning, and LEED® commissioning projects throughout the nation. As a Commissioning Provider and Mechanical Engineer, Dr. McIntosh has prepared and led several Owner's Project Requirements (OPR) workshops, written and integrated numerous commissioning specifications, co-invented and implemented electronic bar-coded checklists, system manuals and tracked owner cost savings. He has also executed hands-on in-depth field work, performed functional performance testing of complex HVAC systems/subsystems and coordinated full-scale operation & maintenance (O&M) and user training programs.

  Ian holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the City College of the City University of New York (CCNY) and earned his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the Solar Energy Lab at UW-Madison. He and his wife of 18 years like to spend quality time with their four children.

  Chris Schumacher

  Senior Building Science Specialist

  Chris is an expert in the field of building monitoring and enclosure and building systems testing. Chris oversees much of the work done through RDH Building Science Laboratories, and he regularly consults on the development of experimental test programs for academic institutions, building product manufacturers, and government agencies. Chris’s research work includes the Thermal Metric Project, a multiyear investigation of thermal performance in full-scale wall assemblies; and the development of an apparatus and test method that measures dense-pack airflow resistance to support the development of the Building Performance Institute’s test standard BPI-103 and material standard BPI-102. Before joining RDH, Chris was a founding principal of Building Science Consulting Inc. and a founding partner of Balanced Solutions Inc., an innovative Canadian building science RD&D consultancy.

• Program Director

  Ian McIntosh

Please Note: The enrollment and successful completion of this course will meet the eligibility requirements for the certification course, Building Enclosure Commissioning Certification Examination.  If you are interested in pursuing commissioning certification, consider enrolling in both these courses simultaneously. Alternatively, you may enroll in the certification course at a later date when it becomes available.

Fee covers live online course instruction and electronic materials.

Receive a $100 discount per person when two or more sign up from same employer.

If you are planning to attend an Interdisciplinary Professional Programs course, payment is required at the time of registration. Below are the payment options:

Pay by Credit Card

Enroll online and pay by credit card.

• Search for the course on the website and then click on the Enroll Now button from the course webpage.
• Enter all necessary course attendee information and payment information on the course enrollment page.
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Enroll over the phone and pay by credit card.

• Call CERC Registrations at 608-262-2451.
• Provide the registrations representative with:
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• You will receive either a mailed document or an email to confirm successful enrollment payment.

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Mail in a completed registration form and check payable to UW Madison.

• Fill out a registration form (found either in the back of the course brochure you received in the mail or here).
• Prepare a check, made payable to UW Madison.
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• Request Purchase Order information from interpro@union.wisc.edu
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Military

If using SF-182 form, please call our registration number at 608-262-2451 or email interpro@union.wisc.edu for details and instructions.

Event Cancellation

We reserve the right to cancel a course due to insufficient enrollment or unforeseen events. If we cancel a course, participants will be notified via email or phone and will be given the option for a full refund or to transfer their registration and any fees paid to another course. We are not responsible for non-refundable plane tickets, hotel reservations, and other travel related expenses. For enrollee Course Cancellation, refer to notes on course page.

If you cannot attend, please notify us by no later than one week before your course begins, and we will refund your fee. Because this course has limited enrollment, cancellation received after this date and no-shows are subject to the full course fee. You may enroll a substitute at any time before the course starts.

Once you have accessed the online course, exam and/or materials, no cancellations or refunds are permitted.