Does your HVAC contractor need to be NEBB-certified to test your equipment? See NEBB’s latest procedural standard

by Brianna Crandall — January 1, 2020 — The National Environmental Balancing Bureau Procedural Standard for Testing Adjusting and Balancing of Environmental Systems, Ninth Edition, is now available for purchase, according to the international certification association for high-performance buildings and systems. The NEBB Procedural Standard establishes a uniform and systematic set of criteria for the performance of the testing, adjusting and balancing of environmental or heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems.

Today’s buildings provide highly controlled, sustainable energy-efficient indoor environments, points out NEBB. These buildings include very sophisticated mechanical systems created by a team of skilled professionals. A key member of this team is identified as the NEBB Certified Testing, Adjusting and Balancing (TAB) Firm (CF).

Since building owners, facilities managers (FMs) and tenants are concerned about the cost-effective performance of the environmental systems within their respective buildings, which NEBB says can be best accomplished by having the HVAC system properly tested, balanced and/or commissioned by a NEBB Certified Professional or Technician, owners and FMs may want to confirm that their HVAC contractor is NEBB Certified to work with NEBB Procedural Standards.

NEBB Certified Firms provide:

  • Testing, adjusting and balancing of environmental systems
  • Building systems commissioning
  • Technical retro-commissioning for existing buildings
  • Sound measurement and vibration measurement
  • Building enclosure testing
  • Fume hood testing
  • Cleanroom performance testing

This standard and these procedures are intended as the minimum NEBB requirements that a NEBB Certified Firm must follow when performing TAB procedures.  When contract documents do not specify details for Testing, Adjusting and Balancing, this Procedural Standard becomes the minimum standard to which a NEBB Certified TAB Report must meet.

Conversely, contract documents may include more stringent requirements as necessary, in which NEBB Firms must meet this standard plus any additional, more stringent, requirements as dictated by the contract documents.  This Procedural Standard has been carefully compiled and reviewed by the NEBB TAB Committee.

NEBB Firms are required to own the latest version of a Procedural Standard to meet the requirements of firm recertification in every discipline. The NEBB Procedural Standard for Testing Adjusting and Balancing of Environmental Systems, Ninth Edition, is available for purchase from the NEBB website, as are the association’s other standards.