Set to work
Setting to work is the process of switching on (i.e. setting to work) items such as fans and motors to ensure that they are operating as specified (for example checking that fans are turning the right way).
The BSRIA guide to 'Commissioning Air Systems' (BG 49/2024), written by by Keith Barker and published by BSRIA in March 2024, explains how to commission ducted air distribution systems in buildings. It was originally published in 2013, then 2015 with the latest update in 2024.
For the purposes of the guide, it defines setting to work as: 'The process of setting a static system into operation. This follows after the pre-functional testing.'
In turn the same guide defines pre-functional testing as: 'The systematic checking of a completed installation to confirm its state of readiness for functional testing. Pre-functional testing is a post-installation completion activity.'
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
Featured articles and news
Great British Energy install solar on school and NHS sites
200 schools and 200 NHS sites to get solar systems, as first project of the newly formed government initiative.
600 million for 60,000 more skilled construction workers
Announced by Treasury ahead of the Spring Statement.
The restoration of the novelist’s birthplace in Eastwood.
Life Critical Fire Safety External Wall System LCFS EWS
Breaking down what is meant by this now often used term.
PAC report on the Remediation of Dangerous Cladding
Recommendations on workforce, transparency, support, insurance, funding, fraud and mismanagement.
New towns, expanded settlements and housing delivery
Modular inquiry asks if new towns and expanded settlements are an effective means of delivering housing.
Building Engineering Business Survey Q1 2025
Survey shows growth remains flat as skill shortages and volatile pricing persist.
Construction contract awards remain buoyant
Infrastructure up but residential struggles.
Home builders call for suspension of Building Safety Levy
HBF with over 100 home builders write to the Chancellor.
CIOB Apprentice of the Year 2024/2025
CIOB names James Monk a quantity surveyor from Cambridge as the winner.
Warm Homes Plan and existing energy bill support policies
Breaking down what existing policies are and what they do.
Treasury responds to sector submission on Warm Homes
Trade associations call on Government to make good on manifesto pledge for the upgrading of 5 million homes.
A tour through Robotic Installation Systems for Elevators, Innovation Labs, MetaCore and PORT tech.
A dynamic brand built for impact stitched into BSRIA’s building fabric.
BS 9991:2024 and the recently published CLC advisory note
Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings. Code of practice.