Commissioning livestock buildings: The needs and challenges

This article presents the needs for and the challenges of commissioning liv estock buildings. Data collected from a newly built large swine building an d recent research on ventilation performance revealed that commissioning of livestock buildings is needed and that commissioning procedures can be dif ferent from those for office and commercial buildings. Standards and guidel ines for the design, construction, evaluation, and management of livestock buildings must be established. These needs are more apparent as the livesto ck industry becomes more integrated, livestock buildings become larger and more capital is required. Aspects of building performance for which commiss ioning appears necessary include infiltration or exfiltration, system venti lation capacity ventilation effectiveness, air distribution, maximum heatin g or cooling capability temperature and relative humidity responses, and co ntrollability of ventilation equipment. Commissioning livestock buildings p resents both technical and economical challenges because the process must b e technically feasible and economically justified.