Commissioning of any building system – electrical distribution, BAS, fire alarm, lighting controls, local controls, etc. – is a process that can go smoothly and efficiently, or it can be an extended series of problems, false starts and disruptions. The difference between these two scenarios often boils down to one thing: whether or not pre-functional testing was performed first.
Pre-functional testing (PFT), also known as pre-testing, pre-functional check (PFC) or pre-verification testing (PVT), is an activity that should be scheduled to occur just prior to commissioning to catch and correct system issues that can derail the commissioning process. Unfortunately, too many project schedules skip this extremely important step, and these are the projects that are unnecessarily fraught with problems and delays that should have been caught and corrected prior to show time.
Commissioning is certainly not the time to suddenly discover problems like design flaws, malfunctioning equipment, installation errors, and missing components that will require some and effort time to correct. Setting aside a window for pre-functional testing just might be the most valuable slice of time in the MEP portion of your project.
About Omni
Omni Instrumentation Services, Inc. is a premier instrumentation and electrical contractor, providing superior total care solutions since 1986. Services include instrument installation, tubing installation, instrument calibration, control loop testing, startup and commissioning, power and lighting, process control wiring, BMS wiring, telecommunications and data wiring, fire alarm wiring, security wiring, process network wiring, and control panel fabrication. Omni Instrumentation Services, Inc. is certified in Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus, DeviceNet and ASI-Bus installation.