Read about what Building Commissioning is and how in my four month internship I learned a whole new occupation and field of work.
"Building energy costs are one of the largest challenges facility owners and management personnel face today.
We help our clients reduce the energy consumed by buildings systems, improve indoor air and environmental quality, and optimize building performance."
-Stephen Turner
Welcome!
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My name is Tess Bradley. I am a senior at Rhode Island College and have just recently finished working over 350 hours for my internship with Stephen Turner Inc. STI, for short, is one of the only commissioning practices in RI. Stephen Turner Inc. is dedicated to providing comprehensive building commissioning services. Commissioning is a quality process which ensures, verifies, and documents an existing building or the construction of a new building. It's main ideals are to meet the owner’s needs and expectations. While also monitoring and tracking their buildings equipment making sure it runs as efficiently and environmentally friendly as possible. STI offers commissioning services in all forms – new building commissioning, building automation systems, renovation commissioning, ongoing commissioning of existing buildings, HVAC control systems and commissioning of system retrofits. With their highly experienced staff and dedicated team, I feel like it was the best companies that I could experience my first real adventure into the working field. While the staff were also the best teachers, I learned about an interesting occupation and opened my eyes up to the future possibilities I could achieve.
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In the four months I was at STI I learned an immense amount about the commission field. I worked forty hours a week, and each day I practiced and became skilled in something new and challenging. Stephen allowed me to experience live construction sites, paid for me to get my certification in OSHA 10 and learn extensively about computer software programs such as CAD, all Microsoft programs, Adobe creative cloud, and Adobe Illustrator. The opportunity to be in a real-world work setting has showed me what to except and the responsibilities I should be prepared for when I graduate and enter the real world.
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Below is a chart that tries to explain, as simple as it gets, the process of commissioning a building. Confusing for a new eye, but it only took me four months, and over 350 hours of work to get sort of a handle on it, but this website will explain what I did throughout the time and what STI does to an extent.
