At the BOMA International convention in Orlando this past June, International revealed that it was launching a pilot program for building retuning for small and mid-sized buildings and that two BOMA local affiliates would be selected to participate in this program. So what exactly is Building re-tuning?  "The Building re-tuning process identifies opportunities to improve building operations and provides recommendations to implement low-cost corrections, leading to a 5% - 20% reduction in a building's overall energy consumption." Building re-tuning does not replace retro-commissioning, rather, it complements or supplements retro-commissioning. While retro-commissioning is something you would probably only do once for your building, retuning can be done every few years to maintain efficiency. "A building re-tuning program was developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and piloted by the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI). CBEI and BOMA are now partnering to create a train-the-trainer deployment model to be offered by BOMA local associations."
 
I am very excited to announce that BOMA San Diego was selected as one of the two BOMA locals (out of 93!)  that will be participating in the pilot program. Our course will be offered in late February 2015 with the idea being that the 12 people trained in our pilot program would then train others on building re-tuning. This could be through serving as a trainer for future BOMA San Diego retuning courses, or training your own building engineers for re-tuning. Those participating in our February course will be able to provide valuable feedback to BOMA International before the program is rolled out to the entire organization.
 
How can you get involved? We are looking for a host building – we need a building that is no larger than 200,000 square feet and does not have an energy management system. This building needs to have a conference room or training room that can hold approximately 15 people for two days. In exchange, your building will be thoroughly evaluated by instructors and students during the training. We are also looking for 12 "students" who will be able to train others with what they have learned. The more people that know how to perform this service, the more efficient our buildings will be! The course will consist of two eight hour days.
 
If you are interested in hosting the training (and getting a very thorough review of your building for free) or if you are interested in becoming a building re-tuning trainer, please contact Chelsey in the BOMA Office as soon as possible.