What is in your opinion the baseline for the following building:
Floor area:12,000 sqm (130,000 sqft)
Floors: 5 above grade, mostly conditioned. 5 underground parking, mostly unconditioned apart from some conditioned spaces in the first below grade floor.
Predominant Use: Office (85% of sqft),
Secondary use: bank in PB and below grade; Kitchen, below grade; control security room, below grade.
I'm in between baseline 6 or 8. If conditioned spaces below grade fall under exceptions to G3.1.1 b. then can I consider for the baseline that the predominant building has 5 floors instead of 6?
Thanks in advance.
Santiago.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
July 1, 2015 - 12:40 pm
I think it should be a system 8.
Subtracting the floor is certainly consistent with the USGBC policy of subtracting the area associated with the application of a G3.1.1 exception. So I think you could make a case for a system 6.
I have never agreed with the USGBC approach of subtracting the area associated with exceptions and then entering the baseline system selection table. I think 90.1-2013 clarifies the intent as they explicitly state that you only subtract the area when applying what is now exception a. The conservative and far easier to defend option is to use system 8. Using system 6 will require you to provide additional justification.
Andres Schwarz
PrincipalNRG-AR / Green Certification Consultants
13 thumbs up
July 4, 2015 - 3:31 pm
Thank you, Marcus, much appreciated.