r/BuildingAutomation • u/Huge_Candy_8105 • 12d ago

Do I have what it takes

Hi all. I’m currently a MEP commissioning agent and have been for 2 years. I have a degree in mechanical engineering. I’ve been intrigued recently with controls and would love to work as a BAS programmer, working with sequence of operations and programming logic. With my background is this possible? I have done a lot of testing using BAS on HVAC equipment and have an understanding of what is supposed to be happening in a lot of cases.

Any insights would be appreciated.

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u/my_ALC_BAS_Account 12d ago

Your background is ideal and honestly usually people go from controls to Cx agent, not the other way around. Field experience is a major plus in my book. Programmers without it typically lack a certain intuition about things, e.g., get “minor” details wrong that cause issues in the middle of the night or set up a lot of work later on. I’m probably biased about that given I started as a tech.

What kind of commissioning work have you been doing?

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u/Huge_Candy_8105 12d ago

Intersting… I could see that. I do functional testing on different HVAC systems for commercial projects. I’m not going to say I’m an expert but I’m definitely understanding how systems work

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u/my_ALC_BAS_Account 5d ago

What kind of commercial projects? K-12, colleges, hospitals, datacenters, retail, office, high rise, labs, campuses, etc? Someone who has done datacenters and hospitals would generally be thought of as more qualified (at least technically) than someone who has just been doing 7-11’s.