Commissioning livestock buildings: The needs and challenges

This article presents the needs for, and the challenges of, commissioning livestock buildings. Data collected from a newly built large swine building and recent research on ventilation performance revealed that commissioning of livestock buildings is needed and that commissioning procedures can be different from those for office and commercial buildings. Standards and guidelines for the design, construction, evaluation, and management of livestock buildings must be established. These needs are more apparent as the livestock industry becomes more integrated, livestock buildings become larger, and more capital is required. Aspects of building performance for which commissioning appears necessary include infiltration or exfiltration, system ventilation capacity, ventilation effectiveness, air distribution, maximum heating or cooling capability, temperature and relative humidity responses, and controllability of ventilation equipment. Commissioning livestock buildings presents both technical and economical challenges because the process must be technically feasible and economically justified.