HVAC Sequence of Operations Template

Build and download a free HVAC sequence of operations — write the controls narrative mode by mode from the ASHRAE Guideline 36 modes, and every set point you enter is checked against the ASHRAE 90.1 dead band and setback rules as you type. PDF, Word, or Excel export.

HVAC sequence of operations

Write the controls narrative mode by mode, starting from the ASHRAE Guideline 36 modes. Every set point you enter is checked against the ASHRAE 90.1 dead band and setback rules as you type.

Sequence of Operations

HVAC · Controls Narrative

Modes

1

Drafts

1

Zones

0

Setpoints OK

0/0

To resolve

1

ASHRAE Guideline 36 modes · 90.1 setpoint checks1 to resolve
1The system this narrative describes
System designation
Climate zone
Economizer high-limit device
Required high-limit shutoffauto

Economizer off when outdoor-air dry bulb > 65 °F

Capacities & safety set pointsNothing set
Supply CFMoptional
Freezestat °Foptional
High static limitoptional
Low static limitoptional
2Prepared by & project owner
Prepared by
Project / owner
3Operating modes — the narrative
Mode & trigger

Scheduled occupied period for the zone group served by the system, or an active after-hours override.

4Setpoint schedule
Zone
Occupied heat
Occupied cool
Not setNot set
5System description & alarms
System descriptionoptional
Alarms & interlocksoptional
6Document & revision
Document number
Date
Rev.
Project name
Engineer of record
PE / cert #optional

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What's included

  • Prepared-by and project/owner blocks
  • Document number, date, revision, system designation, and engineer of record
  • Climate zone selector with the required economizer high-limit shutoff stated for you
  • Economizer device options — fixed dry bulb, differential dry bulb, fixed and differential enthalpy
  • Per-zone setpoint schedule with occupied and unoccupied heating and cooling
  • Automatic dead band, setback, and setup checking against ASHRAE 90.1
  • Eleven pre-written ASHRAE Guideline 36 operating modes you can edit
  • Trigger, operation narrative, and active safeties recorded for every mode
  • Narratives written around your project — equipment tag, set points, and the required economizer high limit
  • Unedited preset paragraphs flagged as draft so nothing generic is issued by accident
  • Company logo upload, system description, alarms and interlocks, notes, and engineer sign-off
  • Export to PDF, Word (.docx), or Excel (.xlsx)

How to use this template

  1. 1

    Set up the document

    Add your company, the project and owner, the system designation, and the engineer of record. Set the revision number — a sequence of operations gets reissued, and the revision is what the commissioning authority tracks.

  2. 2

    Set the climate zone and economizer

    Pick the project climate zone and the economizer sensing device. The required high-limit shutoff is stated for you from ASHRAE 90.1 Table 6.5.1.1.3, including the zones where differential dry bulb is not permitted at all.

  3. 3

    Schedule the set points

    Enter occupied and unoccupied heating and cooling for each zone. The dead band and the setback offsets are calculated as you type, and anything that breaks the 90.1 minimums is flagged on the row with the clause that governs it.

  4. 4

    Write the narrative mode by mode

    Add the operating modes you need from the Guideline 36 list. Each one arrives with a starter narrative, a trigger, and its active safeties already written, so you are editing a draft rather than staring at an empty box.

  5. 5

    Sign off and export

    Add the system description, the alarm and interlock list, and your sign-off, then download a clean PDF to issue or a Word file to keep editing. The Excel export gives the controls contractor the setpoint schedule on its own.

Why the sequence of operations is the document that decides how a building actually runs

Equipment schedules say what got installed. The sequence of operations says what it does — when the fan runs, when the damper opens, what the set points are in every mode, and what happens when something trips. It is the document the controls contractor programs from and the commissioning authority tests against, which means a vague sequence produces a building that runs badly no matter how good the equipment is.

Most of it is prose, but the parts that are checkable get missed constantly. ASHRAE 90.1 requires at least a five degree dead band between the heating and cooling set points, and a seventy-two degree heating set point against a seventy-five degree cooling set point is a code violation that also makes the two loops fight each other all day. The setback rule is asymmetric and catches people out: unoccupied heating has to sit at least ten degrees below occupied, but unoccupied cooling only five degrees above. The economizer high limit is not one number either — it is seventy-five degrees in the dry and cold zones, seventy in 5A and 6A, and only sixty-five in the warm-humid A zones, where differential dry bulb is not allowed at all. This template checks all of it as you type.

It also starts you from the real mode structure rather than a blank page. The operating modes come from ASHRAE Guideline 36, the industry standard for high-performance sequences, and each one arrives pre-written so you edit a draft instead of composing from scratch. Build the narrative here, then let CloseCrew handle the phones so Larry books the next job while you finish this one.

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Sequence Of Operations FAQs

What is an HVAC sequence of operations?

It is the written narrative that describes how a system behaves in every operating mode — occupied, unoccupied, warm-up, setback, economizer, freeze protection and so on. For each mode it states what triggers it, what every fan, damper and valve does, what the set points are, and which safeties stay active. It is what the controls contractor programs from and what the commissioning authority tests the finished building against.

Guideline 36, "High-Performance Sequences of Operation for HVAC Systems", is ASHRAE's library of vetted control sequences. It is a guideline rather than a mandatory standard, so you are not required to follow it, but it is the closest thing the industry has to a reference sequence and it is increasingly named in specifications. It defines the zone-group modes this template starts from — Occupied, Warm-Up, Cool-Down, Setback, Setup, Freeze Protection and Unoccupied — and it drives set points from zone requests using trim-and-respond rather than fixing them at design values.

Five degrees Fahrenheit. ASHRAE 90.1 section 6.4.3.1.2 requires that where one thermostat controls both heating and cooling, the two set points must be separately adjustable with a dead band of at least five degrees between them, inside which heating and cooling energy is shut off or reduced to a minimum. Seventy against seventy-five is exactly at the limit and passes; seventy-two against seventy-five is a three degree band and does not. This template flags it on the row as you type.

It depends on both the zone and the sensing device, and ASHRAE 90.1 Table 6.5.1.1.3 sets it. For fixed dry bulb it is seventy-five degrees in zones 1B, 2B, 3B, 3C, 4B, 4C, 5B, 5C, 6B, 7 and 8; seventy degrees in 5A and 6A; and sixty-five degrees in the warm-humid zones 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A. Differential dry bulb is not permitted in those same four A zones. The enthalpy options apply everywhere and shut the economizer off above twenty-eight Btu per pound with a seventy-five degree dry-bulb backstop. Pick your zone and device and the template states the required condition.

No, and this is one of the most commonly repeated mistakes in controls narratives. ASHRAE 62.1 does not publish an absolute indoor CO2 limit — the widely quoted thousand ppm figure comes from a misreading of an informative appendix that was deleted in the 2019 edition. The standard works in CO2 concentration relative to outdoors, and the correct differential depends on the space type and its population. State your project differential above ambient rather than an absolute number. Separately, ASHRAE 90.1 section 6.4.3.8 requires demand-controlled ventilation where a space is larger than five hundred square feet and its design density is twenty-five or more people per thousand square feet — both conditions, not either one.

Yes. Build and download it free as a PDF, Word, or Excel file — no login. Add as many modes and zones as the system needs, and edit every word of the pre-written narratives to match your project.

Write the sequence once. CloseCrew keeps the next job booked.