Electrostatic Precipitator Commissioning: What Is Measured on Site, What Cannot Be, Who Does What, and the 12-Point Record to Sign Before Handover

Electrostatic precipitator commissioning is the set of checks and measurements made after installation and before handover that show the unit is the one ordered, is supplied as built, and is running at a known airflow. It does not produce an efficiency figure; that is a laboratory quantity, and a site emission test is a separate step. Twelve entries below make the record you sign.

The expensive error at this step is signing a handover because the unit powered up and the indicator came on. What that signature does not contain is the airflow the fan actually delivers, the pressure drop the unit adds at that airflow, the supply measured at the isolator, whether the cells come out on the side that is open, and who pulls them for washing and when. Each of those is a line that is cheap to record on the day and expensive to establish a year later, when the first complaint arrives and nobody can say what the installed system started from.

This page helps you decide whether the commissioning record for a kitchen ESP or ecology unit can be signed, what each of its twelve entries is checked against, which three numbers can be measured on site and how to read them, what is recorded instead of an efficiency figure, and how the cleaning basis gets into the same document. It also says what we publish about commissioning our own units and what we need from you to help by video call. It does not give installation or electrical steps, does not measure efficiency, and does not replace the assessment a local authority may require. For the checks made before the units shipped, see our electrostatic precipitator pre-shipment inspection page; for the cleaning regime the record hands over to, see electrostatic precipitator cleaning.

Where commissioning sits, and what it cannot prove

Commissioning is the first time an electrostatic precipitator runs with the kitchen’s own fan, its own duct and its own supply, and it is the last document step before the unit becomes the operator’s problem rather than the contractor’s. Everything before it was paper or a factory floor: the certificates and test reports settled what the model is, the drawing settled where it sits, and the pre-shipment check settled that the units built were the units on the proforma invoice. Commissioning settles one new thing, which is what the installed system starts from.

Our certifications page puts it as three layers of acceptance that are separate: equipment evidence, site installation and interfaces, and whole-system operation, with the note that no certificate settles the third layer in advance, so the parties agree at handover how it will be checked and on what schedule. Commissioning is that agreement carried out for the first time. It belongs to the third layer, and passing the first two does not clear it.

What commissioning does not produce is the efficiency percentage a test report carries, and it helps to be clear about why before anyone proposes to read one off a handheld instrument on the day. The figures on a report come from methods that run on a rig. The Chinese regulation cited on the SQEP report for our LK120, HJ/T 62-2001, feeds a straight test duct with simulated cooking fume at a stated concentration and measures the unit at its rated airflow and again at 80% and 120% of it. ASTM F2519-05(2025), the method named on North American specifications, determines the grease particle capture efficiency of components and systems on a test apparatus under its own controlled conditions. Neither method is reproduced by a commissioning engineer at a kitchen terminal: a kitchen does not produce a stated inlet concentration, a straight sampling run or a controlled airflow on demand. Where a project does call for an emission measurement on site, HJ/T 62 itself provides for a separate engineering acceptance of larger installations, and a local authority may set its own test; that is a separate step with its own party and date, read alongside the report as described on our test report page, and it is recorded as what it is. A number written on a commissioning sheet under the heading efficiency, measured with whatever instrument was on the van, is not a figure under either method and should not be signed as one.

Where a local authority has set an emission or odor condition, that condition is assessed on site by a qualified person under the authority’s own procedure, and the commissioning record supports that assessment without replacing it. The record’s job is narrower: to fix the airflow, the pressure drop, the supply and the starting condition of the unit, so that any later measurement has something to be compared with.

Who does what: contractor, commissioning engineer and factory

Installation, electrical connection and commissioning attendance belong to a competent contractor working to the installation documents, and that is the split we publish rather than one we leave to be assumed. Our ecology unit installation page states that installation labor and commissioning attendance are not in the equipment supply, and that the physical installation, electrical connection and commissioning belong to a competent contractor. What we supply for that work is the installation and commissioning manual, listed on our document request page as carrying step-by-step installation instructions, ductwork dimension requirements, electrical wiring diagrams and the commissioning checklist, emailed within one business day of a request. Beyond the manual we give remote support by video call and illustrated manuals, and site attendance as a paid service.

The measured airflow comes from a different party again. A balancing or commissioning engineer measures what the fan delivers through the duct, and that figure arrives from commissioning rather than from any supplier, as our installation page says. The electrostatic precipitator is a component in that duct, and its own commissioning cannot start until the system it sits in has a measured airflow to be commissioned at. Where your building control or reviewer applies its own commissioning regime to the ventilation system, that regime sits above this record and produces its own certificate; the record on this page is the equipment-level document that feeds it.

Decision rule. IF the record is being filled by the party that installed the unit alone, with no balancing report and no owner’s signature, THEN it is a completion note and not a commissioning record, BECAUSE the two entries that matter later, the delivered airflow and the pressure drop at that airflow, are measured by an engineer with instruments and held by the owner. They are not reported by the installer from the fan nameplate.

Before the first start: readiness, safety and the handover briefing

Pre-commissioning is the part of the work that happens before anything is energized, and the record assumes it was done rather than describing how. Mechanical readiness means the unit is where the approved drawing put it, the inlet and outlet flanges are connected and sealed to the duct, the access door closes on the service side, and the collector cells and any lamp or carbon frames are seated. Electrical readiness means the supply has been connected to the wiring diagrams in the manual, tested by the electrical contractor, and left isolated until the checklist calls for it. Both belong to the contractor and the manual, and the record’s rows 1 to 4 are the owner’s check that they were finished: a photograph of the nameplate in position, the reading at the isolator, and the checklist steps signed in order.

Safety precautions are the manual’s and the contractor’s, not this page’s. An electrostatic precipitator carries a high-voltage power supply, and the precautions that apply from the moment the supply is connected are set by the contractor’s own procedures and by whatever the manual directs; the record notes that they were followed and does not restate them. The same applies to the industrial-plant commissioning procedures that a search for the term returns: they are written for power-station precipitators with hoppers, rappers and flue gas, and their safety steps are not a substitute for the manual of a kitchen unit.

The handover briefing is the last readiness item and the one most often left out. Before the record is signed, the kitchen team is shown what the unit’s indication means, what to do when it changes, who pulls the cells and when the first wash is due; row 10 records the cleaning basis, and this briefing is how it reaches the people who will live with it. Our cleaning page sets out the inspection and change log the team keeps from that day.

The 12-Point ESP Commissioning Record

Electrostatic precipitator commissioning is recorded entry by entry against a document or a measurement, and the record below has one row for each. The second column says what is written down; the third says what it is checked against, which is the proforma invoice, the approved drawing, the datasheet, the manual or a reading taken on site; the fourth says what to do when the entry fails. An entry that cannot be made because the measurement was not taken is left open and listed on row 12, not written in from memory or from the nameplate.

A record with twelve entries filled, each against its document or measurement, is signed and becomes the baseline for the cleaning log and for any later complaint. A record with an entry that fails on rows 1, 2, 5 or 7 is not signed until the entry is corrected, because those four cannot be corrected after the kitchen opens.

The 12-Point ESP Commissioning Record (our own working record, not an industry standard)

Decision rule. IF rows 5 and 6 carry a number without the airflow beside it, THEN the record is returned to the commissioning engineer before anything else is read, BECAUSE a pressure drop without its airflow cannot be compared with any quoted figure, and an airflow without its method cannot be repeated at the next service. The other ten rows are documents and observations; those two are measurements, and a measurement without its conditions is the same error on site as a datasheet percentage without its basis is on paper.

Airflow, pressure drop and supply: the three numbers that can be measured on site

Three numbers are measured on site, and each one is read against a basis: the delivered airflow against the design airflow, the pressure drop against the quoted basis at that airflow, and the supply against the nameplate. The rest of the record is documents and observations. These three are the entries a later dispute comes back to, and they are the ones most often recorded as a single figure with nothing beside it.

Delivered airflow. An electrostatic precipitator is selected for a design airflow, and every figure on its datasheet and in its test report is read at an airflow. The laboratory method on the SQEP report for our LK120 makes the point itself: HJ/T 62-2001 measures the unit at its rated airflow and then at 80% and 120% of it, because the result changes with the flow. The site number tells you which of those points the installed unit is actually at. It comes from the balancing report, measured by the commissioning engineer by a stated method, and it is written on row 5 with that method and the date. The design airflow it is compared with is the figure that was on row 2 of the enquiry and on the proforma invoice, not the fan’s nameplate and not the duct’s theoretical capacity.

Pressure drop. The pressure drop across the unit is measured at the delivered airflow, and it is compared with the figure that was quoted, on the basis it was quoted. Our in-duct units are quoted as a complete unit, with the standard air-distribution plate, at no more than 150 Pa; the collector field alone is in the region of 20 to 30 Pa as a technical note, and the LK-E datasheet prints the field resistance at 23 to 34 Pa by grade. A site reading taken across the complete unit at a delivered airflow below the design figure will be lower than a reading at the design figure, and a reading taken across the cells alone is not the same quantity as either. Row 6 therefore carries two things: the pressure difference and the airflow it was read at, with a note of where the tappings were. How two quotations can print the same stage on different bases is set out on our ecology unit price page; on site the only cure is to write the basis down.

Supply. Our units are configured to order for 220 V or 380 V at 50 or 60 Hz, and the supply the unit was built for is the one written on the proforma invoice from the panel reading sent with the enquiry. Row 2 records what the electrician reads at the isolator that actually feeds the unit, and the check is that it matches the nameplate. A mismatch stops the record before row 3, because a unit built for one supply and connected to another is rebuilt rather than adjusted, and the time to find that out is before it is energized, not after.

Decision rule. IF the delivered airflow on row 5 is below the design airflow by more than the margin the designer allowed, THEN the record is not signed and the shortfall goes to the ventilation contractor, or to the fan’s supplier where the fan was supplied with the unit, BECAUSE the precipitator treats the air the fan delivers. Commissioning it at the wrong airflow fixes a baseline that every later measurement will be wrongly compared with. IF the airflow is at design and the supply matches the nameplate, THEN rows 5, 6 and 2 are signed, BECAUSE each has been held against its basis rather than against an expectation.

What is not measured at commissioning: efficiency, odor and the first weeks

An efficiency figure is not produced at commissioning, because the methods that produce one run on a laboratory rig and any site emission test is a separate step, so the record carries an outlet baseline and the cleaning basis instead. This is the section to show to anyone who asks for a percentage on the commissioning sheet. The two methods named above, the Chinese test regulation and the ASTM method, each specify the apparatus, the challenge and the airflow under which their figure is produced, and a kitchen on opening day offers none of the three. A percentage produced on site with a handheld particle counter at the terminal is a reading of that instrument on that afternoon; it is not a figure under either method, it cannot be compared with the test report, and a record that carries it under the heading efficiency has recorded a number that will be misread later.

What the record carries instead is row 9, the outlet baseline: photographs at the discharge terminal and, where the duct is accessible, downstream of the unit, with the date, the time, the weather and the hours since the cells were last washed. The baseline is not a measurement of anything; it is the condition that later observations are compared with, and it is the one entry that cannot be recreated if it is skipped. Where a local authority has imposed an emission or odor condition, that condition is assessed by a qualified person under the authority’s procedure, on a date the authority sets, and the commissioning record gives that assessment its starting airflow and starting condition.

Odor is the second thing commissioning does not settle. Where UV and carbon stages are fitted, row 8 records that the lamps indicate, that the carbon frames are seated and that the stages sit in the order they are built to, electrostatic first. It does not record that odor is controlled, because the gas-phase stages act on what reaches them over the first weeks of cooking, and a carbon stage in particular is a consumable that loads with use. What each stage controls, and what it does not, is set out on our what is an ecology unit page.

The first weeks are the third thing. The interval between cell washes depends on the cooking duty, the hours and the grease load, which is why we state it in writing at quotation for the kitchen described and not as a number on a page. Row 10 puts that basis into the commissioning record: the duty behind the interval, who pulls the cells, where they are washed and, agreed at handover, the date of the first service. Our cleaning page sets out how the same lines are written into the order and the contract; commissioning is where they are copied into the document the operator actually keeps. Our quotation comparison page asks for the acceptance measurement and who performs it to be written into the order; this page is what that line can realistically say. It is the delivered airflow, the pressure drop at that airflow, the outlet baseline and a re-check date, not a percentage.

Our own equipment at commissioning

What we publish about commissioning our own units is the manual’s contents, the remote support we give, the configured supply and the warranty boundary, and the record above is filled from those and from the contractor’s measurements, not from anything we add on the day. The table below says, row by row, what is published on our side and what we need from you to help by video call.

One thing we do not do at commissioning is attend as part of the equipment supply; site attendance is quoted separately, and a video call with the contractor at the unit and the manual open is the support we publish. The signature on the record belongs on the owner’s side: the two measurements that matter are made by the commissioning engineer and held by the owner, and a supplier’s signature on them would be a signature on someone else’s instrument.

Scope and limits

The record commissions a unit. Three things sit outside it.

• Installation and wiring. How the unit is positioned, supported, connected and wired is in the manual and belongs to the contractor working to it. This page records the result; it does not describe the steps, and it gives no instruction about energized equipment.
• The system. Capture at the hood, the fan selection, the duct and the make-up air decide the airflow that arrives on row 5. A record that fails on row 5 is a system finding, worked on our kitchen exhaust filtration and installation pages, not a precipitator finding.
• Compliance. Any emission or odor condition, and any ventilation commissioning regime a reviewer applies, is assessed under that body’s own procedure. The record feeds it and does not replace it.

What this page does not do: it does not give a method for measuring efficiency on site, because the methods on our reports are laboratory methods, and a site emission test, where one is required, is a separate step with its own party. It does not state a cleaning interval, which is written at quotation for the duty. It does not set a warranty start date or an acceptance threshold, which are commercial terms on the order. What changes the record: a change of menu or hours after commissioning (row 10 is re-stated); a duct, fan or filter change (rows 5 and 6 are re-measured); a cell wash (row 9 is re-taken as a new baseline).

Buyer record and key takeaways

Before the kitchen opens, your file should hold:

• The signed record with all twelve rows, and the balancing report it draws rows 5 and 6 from.
• The nameplate photographs and the isolator reading, filed with the proforma invoice and the approved drawing.
• The outlet baseline photographs with their date, weather and hours since the last wash.
• The cleaning basis, the first service date and who pulls the cells, copied from the quotation into the record.
• The open-items list with a name and a date against each, and the re-check date for any row left open.

Key takeaways

• Three numbers, each with its basis: airflow with its method, pressure drop with its airflow and tapping positions, supply read at the isolator.
• No efficiency figure on the sheet: the report figure is a laboratory quantity, a site emission test is a separate step, and the record carries an outlet baseline.
• Four rows stop the signature: model list, supply, delivered airflow and cell withdrawal; the rest are signed with a date against the open item.
• The cleaning basis travels: from the quotation, through the contract, into the commissioning record, so the first complaint has a named duty and a named person behind it.
• The factory supports, the contractor commissions, the owner signs: the split is published, not assumed.

Frequently asked questions

What does commissioning an electrostatic precipitator in a kitchen exhaust consist of?

Checking the installed units against the proforma invoice and the approved drawing, reading the supply at the isolator against the nameplate, and energizing and running the control sequence as the manual directs. Then recording the delivered airflow from the balancing report and the pressure drop across the unit at that airflow, testing that the cells withdraw on the service side, confirming any UV and carbon stages, taking an outlet baseline, and writing the cleaning basis and the handed-over documents into the same record. Twelve entries, each against a document or a measurement.

Can efficiency be measured on site during commissioning?

Not as the figure a test report carries. HJ/T 62-2001 and ASTM F2519-05(2025) both run on a laboratory rig with a stated challenge and a controlled airflow. Where a project or an authority requires an emission measurement on site, it is a separate test by a qualified party after commissioning, recorded as what it is. A reading from a handheld instrument at the terminal is a reading of that instrument on that day, not an efficiency figure, and it cannot be compared with the report. The record carries an outlet baseline with its date and conditions instead.

The measured pressure drop is not the figure on the quotation. Is the unit at fault?

Usually not, and the record cannot say until two things are checked. The quoted figure is for a stated basis, in our case the complete unit with the standard air-distribution plate, and the site reading was taken at the delivered airflow, which is often lower than the design figure, and sometimes across the cells alone. Write the airflow and the tapping positions beside the reading and compare like with like; a reading at a lower airflow is lower than the quoted figure by nature.

Who commissions the unit, and does the factory attend?

A competent contractor installs, connects and commissions to the installation documents, and a balancing or commissioning engineer measures the airflow and the pressure drop. We supply the installation and commissioning manual with its wiring diagrams and checklist, support the contractor by video call, and attend site as a paid service when asked; commissioning attendance is not part of the equipment supply, and the record is signed on the owner’s side.

What goes into the commissioning record about cleaning?

The cooking duty, hours and design airflow behind the cleaning interval stated on the quotation, who pulls the cells, where they are washed and the date of the first service. We state the interval in writing at quotation for the kitchen described and not as a number on a page, so the record copies that statement rather than inventing one; the same lines are written into the order and the contract, as set out on our cleaning page.

Commissioning one of our units next week?

Send us the proforma invoice number, a photograph of each nameplate, the isolator reading and, when the balancing report is in, the delivered airflow and the pressure reading with the airflow it was taken at. We confirm the configuration against the proforma invoice and the datasheet, and support your contractor by video call with the manual open, Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 17:00 (GMT+8). If the units are another maker’s, the twelve rows above still apply; the figures they are checked against come from that maker’s documents.

Send the nameplate photo and the isolator reading →

If the order has not been placed yet, the three numbers on this page are what the acceptance line in your order can ask for; the input that fixes the design airflow is row 2 of the ten-input enquiry sheet.

Why we write this. Four of our own pages point the reader to commissioning, and none of them said what it consists of. The questions behind this page are whether efficiency can be measured on the day, and whose signature goes on the record. It answers both by listing what can be measured on site and what cannot. It does not size or configure equipment; sizing and quotation live on the product pages.

References & further reading

1. Laboratory method cited on our reports: HJ/T 62-2001, Test regulation for cooking fume control equipment (rated airflow and 80% and 120% of it, on a test rig with simulated fume). mee.gov.cn
2. Laboratory method named on North American specifications: ASTM F2519-05(2025), Standard Test Method for Grease Particle Capture Efficiency of Commercial Kitchen Filters and Extractors. store.astm.org
3. Our own documents: the document request page (the installation and commissioning manual, wiring diagrams and commissioning checklist, on request), the supplier profile (support hours, warranty, what is and is not supplied) and the certifications page (the three layers of acceptance).
4. The two pages the record hands over to: electrostatic precipitator cleaning (the cleaning basis and the inspection log) and ecology unit installation (what the equipment supply does and does not include).

Related reading

• Electrostatic precipitator pre-shipment inspection: the twelve checks made before the balance is paid, and the arrival record this page follows.
• Electrostatic precipitator drawing approval: the eleven lines on the general arrangement drawing that rows 1 and 7 of the record are checked against.
• Electrostatic precipitator cleaning: what a service visit covers and how the cleaning basis is written into the order, which row 10 copies.
• Electrostatic precipitator landed cost: the twelve cost lines between the factory price and the unit on the floor, settled before the order rather than at commissioning.