By Todd Larson, on Jul 3, 2017, The NEBB Professional – Q4 2017 Edition
- What makes NEBB the gold standard in environmental systems?
- Why is NEBB certification – be it firm or individual – essential for building systems professionals, technicians, and firms?
- How do firms, professionals, and technicians benefit from NEBB?
NEBB certified firms, professionals, and technicians agree that their primary motivation to choose NEBB as their certification agency over others: it upholds the highest standards of specifications, procedures, and professional conduct anywhere in its field and offers certification in the largest number of disciplines in the building systems industry.
This enables certified firms and certified individuals to achieve the highest level of operational efficiency and carbon footprint reduction in any residential, commercial, or industrial building.
NEBB certifies individuals and firms in a variety of disciplines through a comprehensive certification process. The discipline certifications are:
- Testing, Adjusting and Balancing (TAB) of a building’s HVAC systems so they operate at maximum environmental efficiency and minimize the carbon footprint;
- Building Systems Commissioning (BSC), verification of the correct installation of a building’s mechanical (HVAC) systems into a new construction project according to its contract document’s specifications, as well as the operational efficiency of those systems according to the requirements of their design;
- Cleanroom Performance Testing (CPT), verification that the environmental state of a workroom meets established air-quality standards;
- Commissioning Process Professional (CxPP), an individual certification, recently American National Standards Institute (ANS) accredited, that leads, plans, coordinates and manages a commissioning team to implement commissioning processes in new and existing buildings;
- Fume Hood Testing (FHT), verification of the effective operation of fume hoods in hospitals, laboratories, and educational facilities;
- Sound Measurement (SM), verification that sounds emitted from energy systems are at acceptable decibel levels to preclude sound conditions injurious to hearing;
- Vibration Measurement (VM), the use of vibration meters, testers, and/or sensors to measure frequencies of vibrations and oscillations in mechanical systems as signs of energy overuse;
- Building Enclosure Testing (BET), which includes testing for air leakage and building air-tightness; and
- Retro-Commissioning of Existing Buildings (RCx-EB), correction and verification of operational efficiency of existing mechanical (HVAC) systems so they can meet the building’s energy and water performance standards as well as occupant comfort and productivity.
Training: The Continuum
Training is the crux for any solid base of knowledge – be it live, online, or self-study and NEBB offers an expanding program moving into the future. Its seminar programs are continually filled prior to the registration deadline dates, self-study courses are available, and the Certification Board is venturing into online practice tests for candidates.
The rigor, constancy, and currency of these training programs and ancillary opportunities assure clients of NEBBcertified firms the highest level of service from Certified Professionals and Certified Technicians.
NEBB training benefited Terry Townsend, president of Townsend Engineering Inc. of Chattanooga, TN, from the time he joined the association as a mechanical engineer to his current position as chairman of the NEBB Standards Council, which supervises any NEBB Standards Committee’s actions regarding NEBB industry standards approved by ANSI.
“The training I received before was theory, but NEBB’S education is practical application, so now you’re looking at what a system is supposed to do,” said Townsend, whose firm provides mechanical and electrical engineering, fire protection, plumbing services and commissioning and retro-commissioning services for commercial, institutional, and industrial clients. “NEBB gives you tools to help you go through the process to determine the best solution for making systems work properly. Clients like hospitals or educational facilities realize what long-term benefits they have from technicians doing the job correctly the first time rather than just doing the job. NEBB professionals drive their associates to do the job correctly initially, thus giving the best service to the client.”
NEBB has clear-cut standards. “NEBB is the only agency, to my knowledge, that requires proof of knowledge of industry-leading standards and procedures and forces its firms, professionals, and technicians to uphold them,” said Jonathen Lloyd, owner of Lloyd’s Air & Hydronic Testing, Adjusting and Balancing in Reedy Creek, Queensland, Australia. “All other agencies merely have a set of guidelines.”
Quality Assurance, Standards, and Compliance
Breadth of coverage of technical processes in its procedural standards, education, certification, and recertification programs also distinguishes NEBB in its industry. “In my 17 years of TAB, I have had hands-on experience with most HVAC applications,” said Lloyd, whose firm was NEBBcertified 3 years ago. “Whilst studying and completing my professional certification, my horizon was drastically broadened, enabling me to be a greater asset to my clients and a more efficient TAB professional.”
Another quality assurance initiative governing member firms is NEBB’s compliance enforcement program. “If a firm encounters clear misappropriation with others in the field, there’s an opportunity within NEBB to rectify the problem,” said Brian Keller, Director of Commissioning at Cleary Zimmerman Engineers of San Antonio, TX, which specializes in building analytics, commissioning, and retro-commissioning, IT/security systems, plumbing, and mechanical, electrical, and water/wastewater engineering. “There’s a process for following compliance procedures for investigating issues as it relates to its particular case, be it a certified firm or certified individual.”
Firm Certification
NEBB’s unique emphasis on firm certification assures a firm’s readiness to remedy an emergency or get it right the first time. Firm certification focuses on the collaborative process necessary to deliver top-notch work. “NEBB is the only industry association that requires a firm to have skin in the game,” said Keller. “Specific guidelines for the firm and the individual help maintain a higher level of integrity.”
NEBB-certified firms qualify to be emergency standbys and superior-delivery units by maintaining quality standards in all aspects of the business, including multiple steps toward certification and in all industry disciplines beyond the TAB -discipline on which NEBB was founded in 1971.
This is particularly true in two disciplines not formally standardized or certified by any other industry associations: (1) building enclosure testing (BET), which ensures the constructional solidity and security of the building envelope from walls to roof glazing to doors, to ease strain on the operating systems; and (2) retro-commissioning, which pinpoints changes in a building’s energy-efficiency requirements and adjusts its environmental systems to reflect those changes.
The scope of building envelope and systems coverage ensures the most efficient operation of all systems contained in the envelope, thus reducing the building’s carbon footprint – it is a more holistic approach. Accordingly, these two disciplines “are most commonly involved with pro ducing more energy-efficient or smaller-carbon-footprint buildings,” said NEBB Past President Jim Kelleher, vice president of Metro Test & Balance of Capitol Heights, MD, which provides sheet-metal fabrication and installation and TAB for HVAC systems.
In addition to having the industry’s only retro-commissioning standard, NEBB “adds a technician’s handbook of practical knowledge to the retro-commissioning procedure,” said Keller. “I don’t think our industry competition is doing it at that level. NEBB has a retro-commissioning process approach and has developed a technical approach to support that process which covers the what, how, and who.”
NEBB’s retro-commissioning certification program allows mechanical engineers to complete a higher standard of work by delegating retro-commissioning duties to separate specialists beforehand. “I’m a designer, so I can be blind to things I have missed; an independent firm can become objective to the design review process,” said Townsend. “You need someone objective to identify problem areas and have them resolved before going and doing your work.”
NEBB certification in BET has been beneficial for Phil Emory, a building enclosure testing lead engineer at Neudorfer Engineers Inc. of Seattle, WA, and Portland, OR, who is certified in TAB, BSC, CPT, and S&V. “The advantage I have from my competitors is carrying the NEBB professional certifications for the work I perform,” said Emory. “Our firm is considered one of the leaders, especially in the Pacific Northwest, when it comes to many of the NEBB disciplines.”
Emory contributed to the development of NEBB’s formal BET Procedural Standards to ensure all NEBB-certified firms adhere to BET standards. “We have worked with other associations in developing a testing procedure and made sure the NEBB BET testing procedural manual is on par with the leaders of the industry and that the certification program is solid,” stated Emory.
Individual Certifications: The Defining Difference
“The quality procedures required for certification, including pre-requisite experience requirements, education, training, and specific certification examination are all areas in which NEBB exceeds the other organizations,” said NEBB Vice President Jim Whorton, PE, vice president of ViroCon Inc. of Kansas City, MO, whose services include TAB, building systems, LEED commissioning, retro-commissioning, and Sound and Vibration testing. “The number of certification disciplines is also a factor that helps our firms expand their business opportunities.”
The certification preparation process includes meeting specific prerequisites before applying for candidacy, self-study, and, if possible, attending training seminars. When ready, candidates sit for stringent certification examinations. Once officially certified, certificants are required to attend continuing education opportunities to keep up with new building systems technologies.
NEBB’s individual certifications are, in short, “an in-depth, all-aspects requirement of the discipline’s process,” said Lloyd. “For me, the TAB CP certification demands me to be my best. Anything short of this would result in failure.”
Certification as a NEBB professional demands passing the industry’s most comprehensive examinations, which are designed to reflect the procedures, details, and nuances of the candidate’s actual on-the-job duties, plus more.
“NEBB firms are gaining more recognition and respect from all corners of our industry. NEBB firms are now requested on a majority of project specification which is finally eliminating the meter holding companies. Because of this, NEBB business owners are now able to get the prices we require and deserve, more than ever before. NEBB has produced excellent standards creating strong recognition and sometimes giving us the option on what jobs we prefer to do.”
Frank Wiederer, NEBB CP
“Essentially, your professional experience and educational background level is set to high standards and scrutinized,” said Keller. “NEBB’s Certification Department cannot allow any applicant who thinks the certification process is merely paying an application fee to be approved. Our prerequisites for individual certification are rigorous. Some industry organizations have a simple process of registering, paying for an online test, and taking it. NEBB focuses on the quality and depth of its certifications, not the quantity of certificants.”
NEBB ensures precision in its exams by basing them directly on the benchmarks of ANSI, a nonprofit organization that has set and overseen nationwide voluntary consensus standards for engineering, testing, material qualities, and related disciplines since its founding in 1918.
To ensure NEBB’s exams test a candidate’s knowledge rigorously and impartially with uniquely designed questions, exams are created by the Certification Board’s Exam Development Committee (EDC) and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) using ANSI best practices.
“The EDC and Discipline Committees work together on the creation of the specific Body of Knowledge (Bok) and agree on the major content domains and sub-domains that a CP or CT Candidate should know to pass the exam,” said Townsend, who also sits on the NEBB Certification Board’s Examination Development Committee that develops certification exams for the eight disciplines. “Trainers and exam writers both have access to the discipline’s Body of Knowledge and from that, the curriculum is developed and the exam is written. The ANSI process is very rigid, but it provides the best possible testing procedures of candidates to become certified professionals.”
There is also a scientific method by which exams are created. It begins by assembling a group of subject matter experts (SME) in any of the eight disciplines. “They analyze the necessary tasks a candidate must be able to perform for the specific certification group,” said Whorton. “These tasks are grouped and weighted for importance within the body of knowledge. Our Exam Development Committee uses the body of knowledge to develop test questions. The number of questions is weighted based on the importance to the certification.”
To ensure the fairness and accuracy of the exams and to streamline their grading process, the NEBB certification committees use the Angoff test-scoring method, by which they forecast in advance how often each question would be correctly answered by certification candidates.
“Clients want to hire NEBB Certified Firms because NEBB stands for quality and integrity. NEBB supports its certified professionals and technicians by offering in-depth education and training to every individual. When a client hires someone with NEBB credentials, they are assured of high quality and superior specific discipline procedure standards. NEBB is a melting pot of disciplines that makes us stronger together. People can go to other organizations and become certified, but the result is not of the level NEBB requires. Those who want to put in a minimal effort aren’t for NEBB. Our certifications are well-known for being hard to get, but valued and respected when obtained. Anything of quality takes effort, time, and is not easily obtained. NEBB is well-established and has a reputation for adhering to compliance issues. Standing for quality is the NEBB way and that says a great deal about our heritage and our future.”
Eric Jenison, NEBB CP
Continuously Evolving
Passing a demanding exam and receiving certification does not end the educational process for NEBB-certified professionals and technicians. For one, the constant evolution, improvement and substitution of building systems technologies means all certified professionals and technicians must keep abreast of the latest technological developments so they can maintain NEBB’s internationally-renowned seal of quality in all departments, and that may entail recertification.
“A discipline’s Body of Knowledge is reviewed on a threeyear cycle, either to modify and improve, or to reaffirm it,” said Keller. “We want to reaffirm where a Bok needs to be and to reflect the industry trends affected by that discipline.”
Giving Back
Why NEBB? NEBB gives certificants an avenue to keep up with industry progress beyond attending training for recertification or achieving additional certifications. Volunteering in the organization, learning more about the nuts and bolts of the industry, and networking with fellow NEBB members are also part of NEBB’s value.
NEBB is the world’s largest building systems testing-and-balancing organization- boasting over 700 certified firms and 1800 Certified Professionals, 2000 Certified Technicians and 24 chapters worldwide opportunities to learn the latest from the best in the industry and to grow the association’s knowledge base are endless.
“The people I have been able to work with as a volunteer have benefited me and my company due to the ability to share problem-solving skills in an open environment,” said Whorton. “We all face identical issues on many projects. Collaborating with peers and developing solutions to issues that arise has been the main benefit. We can then incorporate those solutions into training and procedural standards to benefit all NEBB firms.”
The EDC has helped to recruit NEBB certified professionals to become SMEs for exam item writing, thereby expanding their industry knowledge and employment prospects.
“Being an SME gives these CPS an opportunity to work in disciplines in which they’re certified and with cross-disciplines, because on the EDC there is representation from retro-commissioning, TAB, and other backgrounds,” said Keller. “They have interactions with other disciplines as subject matter experts.”
Lloyd, a founding member of the Young Professionals Network Ad Hoc Committee of his NEBB chapter, echoes Townsend’s sentiments about the benefits of volunteering for NEBB. “I have been blessed with providing some mentorship support to some young professionals, one of whom recently completed his TAB Certified Technician certification,” Lloyd said. “It is apparent that through this volunteer work, I, as both a professional and a firm, have become more well-known. This has opened the doors to more volunteer opportunities, and even more contract opportunities.”
Why NEBB? The answer is clear: high quality training, stringent firm certification requirements, comprehensive individual certification programs, expanding volunteer opportunities, precision in standard-setting, ANSI-accredited standards and certifications, and quality assurance on all levels.