Hello,
My building is located on a university campus and contains just 2 classrooms and 3 lecture halls (~15.5 ksf). It's a relatively new building constructed in 2007.
Based on Energy Star's definitions of space types (http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=eligibility.bus_portfoliomanager_s...), I am unable to receive an Energy Star rating for my building. I entered in energy consumption data on Portfolio Manager and was able to classify it as "Other - College/University (campus-level)." This compared my building's source EUI score of 177 to the national average of 280.
First of all, I am not sure what "campus-level" refers to.
Second of all, when I begin to use the Case 2 calculator, "College/University" is not an option. The only similar options presented are "Education - K-12 school" and "Education - general." When I choose "general," the national average source EUI is 115 which is MUCH lower than "college/university"s national average souce EUI of 280 found on Portfolio Manager. Then when I run it as "K-12," the source EUI is 169 which is also much lower than "college/university" and is also lower than my building's EUI.
So when I use the Case 2 calculator, it does not meet the minimum requirement when I believe it should based off of Portfolio Manager. What should I do?
Jenny Carney
Vice PresidentWSP
LEEDuser Expert
657 thumbs up
November 20, 2011 - 10:26 am
Within the "Other" category in Energy Star, there are actually two options for the subclassification: "Education" and "College/University - Campus Level".
I can't find the official definition for the "Campus Level" designation, but my understanding is that is the average EUI for all buildings across a campus (labs, dorms, classrooms, gyms, offices, etc), and that it would not be acceptable to try to apply that value to a single, specific building.
The definition for the general "education" classification in Energy Star does seem as though it would fit your situation (from http://www.eia.gov/emeu/cbecs/building_types.html#Education):
"Buildings used for academic or technical classroom instruction, such as elementary, middle, or high schools, and classroom buildings on college or university campuses. Buildings on education campuses for which the main use is not classroom are included in the category relating to their use. For example, administration buildings are part of "Office," dormitories are "Lodging," and libraries are "Public Assembly."
The source EUI for this space type in Energy Star is close to the "Education - General" option within the Case 2 Calculator.
So, it seems like maybe you'll need to take a look at energy efficiency opportunities in your building to get the EUI down.