CHAMPAIGN, Illinois — Keeping Army buildings operating at their best helps strengthen installation readiness and resilience, and improvements don’t always require major renovations. Sometimes, they require a trained eye to identify hidden inefficiencies and optimize the systems already in place. Through a recent hands-on training at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL), facility managers from across the Department of War and other federal agencies learned just that.
Participants from the U.S. Army Installation Management Command, the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command and the Federal Bureau of Investigations facility management team gathered at CERL during the first week of June for the Existing Building Commissioning (EBCx) Practicum, an immersive training program to improve the performance, efficiency and resilience of federal facilities.
The practicum was led by members of the Building Energy Systems team from ERDC-CERL, supported by industry collaborator, David Sellers from Facility Dynamics Engineering.
EBCx focuses on optimizing existing systems through activities such as recalibrating sensors, correcting control sequences, reducing simultaneous heating and cooling, and improving equipment scheduling. These relatively low-cost improvements can generate significant energy savings while increasing the reliability of installation infrastructure.
"Existing Building Commissioning is about ensuring our facilities operate as intended and continue supporting the mission as efficiently as possible," said Jay Tulley, ERDC-CERL research engineer and instructor for the practicum. "Many opportunities for improvement don't require major renovations — they come from understanding how buildings function and making informed operational adjustments."
The team designed the EBCx practicum to bridge classroom instruction with hands-on applications, equipping participants to identify hidden inefficiencies in existing buildings and optimize their operation through data-driven analysis rather than costly infrastructure replacement. The practicum reflects ERDC-CERL's longstanding role in advancing installation energy research and providing the Army with the technical expertise, tools, and training needed to improve performance across its facilities.
Throughout the week, participants worked in multidisciplinary teams to evaluate CERL’s building energy systems including heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, building automation controls and sensors. The teams participated in laboratory activities that included applied systems diagrams, condenser water flow, volumetric airflow measurement, control system sensor calibration and lighting control functional testing.
The training kicked off with an engaging treasure hunt activity, challenging participants to answer questions about the CERL building systems by exploring mechanical rooms and other operational spaces. By collecting field data and analyzing system trends throughout the week, teams developed recommendations to reduce energy consumption, improve occupant comfort and extend the service life of critical infrastructure. As a capstone activity, students made short presentations on lessons learned that can be leveraged at their home installations.
Participant feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many citing the practicum’s hands-on learning environment as one of its greatest strengths. A standout activity was the “Building Chaos Escape Room,” where the participants worked together to solve building commission-based puzzles while applying concepts they learned throughout the week.
“I found this practicum incredibly informative and practical,” one participant noted in an evaluation at the end of the training. “The experience greatly enhanced my working knowledge of building commissioning and the intricacies of mechanical systems. The hands-on lab experiences were particularly valuable and set this training apart from others I’ve attended.”
Beyond energy conservation, the training supports broader Army priorities related to installation resilience and operational readiness. Efficient buildings consume less energy, place lower demands on backup power systems and require fewer maintenance resources, making them better prepared to support critical missions during disruptions.
The EBCx practicum is part of a comprehensive Army training model, the Existing Building Commissioning Academy, that also offers on-demand HVAC, Excel and EBCx fundamentals courses, regular webinars, project development support and advanced coursework that enables graduates to apply Existing Building Commissioning principles at their home installations. The program continues to strengthen the technical expertise of federal facility professionals while supporting USACE’s mission to deliver resilient, sustainable infrastructure for the Warfighter.