Building Staff Interview Form

The Building Staff Interview form provides a Commissioning Provider with a series of questions that
help determine possible issues and opportunities within an office building through the solicitation of
information from those who have the responsibility of operating and maintaining that building. This
form can be used either during the scoping phase, planning phase or during the beginning of the
investigation phase of retrocommissioning project. By interviewing building operators or service
contractors, the Commissioning Provider can gather information on operating conditions, current
preventative maintenance actions, known performance problems, and plans for future corrective action
on major energy consuming equipment. This is not meant to be a comprehensive interview form on how
all the systems in the building are set up and perform but rather a way to obtain the opinions and
perspective of those who are tasked with operating and maintaining the building and to help the
Commissioning Provider gain the confidence of the building staff and begin to understand where the
problem areas may lie. Although the form is specifically designed for office buildings questions,
questions can be changed or added to fit other building types.

Sample Questions for Building Staff Interview

Building Staff Interview Form
Building Name and Location:

Square Footage:
Building Staff Name(s) and Title(s):

How long have you been associated with this building?

Building Staff Interview Form Template

HVAC
Has your heating system always met load?

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Under what conditions has your heating system not met load?
What was the solution to this problem?
Has your cooling system always met load?
Under what conditions has your cooling system not met load?
What was the solution to this problem?
Do you feel you have any undersized HVAC equipment?
If yes, explain:
How do you compensate for the undersizing?

Do you feel you have any oversized HVAC equipment?

Yes

No

If yes, explain:
How do you compensate for the oversizing?
Is there any piece of equipment that is more problematic than others? (e.g. FC-1 is always
tripping on freeze stat. etc)

What HVAC adjustments do you make to unoccupied (vacant) areas or spaces (turn off
HVAC, adjust thermostat to minimum heating and cooling, close off damper.

In your opinion, are the buildings air-side and water-side

systems well balanced?

Building Staff Interview Form Template

Yes

No

If no, explain:

Are there any problems with humidity control?

Yes

No

Yes

No

If yes, explain:

Controls
What type of controls system do you have?

Full pneumatic
Full DDC
Hybrid of DDC and pneumatic
In your opinion how well do you feel the control system works?

If DDC, have any of the building operators received

classroom training from the DDC installer or factory training
by the DDC system manufacturer?

If yes, explain:

Which operating parameters are typically modified by building operators?

____

Temperature setpoints

____

Operating schedules

____

Airflow setpoints

____

Control algorithms

____

Others ____________________________________________________

How often are the control sensors checked and calibrated (temperature, pressure, flow)?

Do you use trend logging?

Building Staff Interview Form Template

Yes

No

If yes, how do you use the trend logging? If no, why not?

Is the building mechanical equipment scheduled to start up simultaneously, or is the

startup staged?

How is the building started up in the morning?

Set scheduled start

Optimum Start Stop strategy through the EMCS

Set scheduled warm up strategy during heating season Other (explain)

Do you feel the strategy is working as you would expect?

If no, why not?

Dont know

Do you use a temperature set-back and set-up strategy

during unoccupied times?

If yes what are the temperatures for

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Dont know

Set-back?
Set up?
Do you feel the strategy is working as you would expect?

If no, why not?

Dont know

Yes

What are some examples of past and/or present problems that have occurred with the
control system? How were they resolved?

What control system upgrades have been implemented (e.g. software and/or hardware
version upgrades, web interface, etc)?

Building Staff Interview Form Template

What control system upgrades would you like to see implemented?

How is both the interior and exterior lighting controlled for your building (manual
switches, ligting control system, time clocks etc.)?
Interior:
Exterior:
Do you have any problems with the lighting controls?

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

If yes, explain:

Do you feel there are any areas in the building that are
over-lit?
If yes, explain
Do you have a maintenance contract for your control
system?

If yes, generally, how often is the control system contractor consulted, and for what
reason(s)?

COMFORT PROBLEMS AND COMPLAINTS

Approximately how many temperature complaints do you receive per month?
What type of temperature complaints do you receive by percentage:

Too hot

From what areas in the building do you receive the most complaints?
Explain the nature of the complaints:

Building Staff Interview Form Template

Describe the nature of the indoor environmental quality complaints (e.g. stuffy, drafty, etc.):

Other comments on indoor environmental quality:

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

How would you describe your maintenance program?

Preventive

Predictive

Reactive

Do you use a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) or a manual system for
scheduled maintenance?

How frequently do you check and tighten fan belts?

How frequently do you change filters?
How frequently do you have your boilers tuned up?
Do you have a recent boiler tune-up report that I could look at?
How frequently do you have your chillers inspected?
Do you face any challenges with your O&M program? If yes, specify below:

What area(s) would you like to receive more training in:

Building Staff Interview Form Template

Do you contract with any outside vendors for building operations and maintenance
services?

Yes

No

If yes, what services do you contract for and who is the provider?
Controls:
All HVAC:
Specific HVAC equipment (e.g. Chiller, Boiler, etc):
Lighting:
Other:

Building Staff Interview Form Template

GENERAL

From what areas in the building do you receive the most complaints?
Explain the nature of the complaints:
What was your worst building problem and how did you deal with it?

What previous energy studies have been performed?

What measures were implemented as a result of these studies?
Which measures were NOT implemented? Why?
What are some recent energy conservation measures that have been implemented?
How well do you think they were implemented?
Are there any energy conservation measures that you think should be implemented?
Do you track month-by-month energy use and costs?

Yes

Dont know

Yes

Dont know

No

If yes, how do you use this information?

Do you review electric load profile information?
Do you benchmark your buildings energy use?

No

If yes, how do you use this information?

Are there any operational changes or efficiency measures that you think would improve
building performance?

Building Staff Interview Form Template

Other Comments:
Ask about operational changes operators would like investigated to improve efficiency.

Building Staff Interview Form Template