Our building Owner concedes that a third party economic audit to determine the feasiblity of retrofitting the existing equipment will likely be an exercise that needs to be done for our compliance with this prerequisite; however, they ask if there is any established criteria for this audit? page 149 (under heading "6") specifically calls it an "economic" audit:
--Does a CPA have to perform it?
--If not a CPA, who can/must do the audit?
--What criteria should/must be included?
The existing AHU that serves our tenant project seeking LEED certification is only one of several tenant spaces that the AHU serves...if the unit is to be retrofitted, then this WILL affect ductwork and distribution to all other tenant spaces since the newer (non-CFC- based) refrigerants have been determined by our engineer to not be as "efficient" in cooling production and distribution would necessarily be changed to the other tenants as well...it seems logical that the economic audit would want to take this into consideration, but is there a formal audit outline?
I cannot find any such reference in the template for this prerequisite.
Thanks for any guidance!
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11474 thumbs up
August 20, 2010 - 1:40 am
Kathy, I've asked around and haven't gotten a response.I don't think there are any official guidelines on this, or enough precedent to track a clear course. I thin you simply have to show that you've done a defensible job. The credentials of CPA would certainly help. Seems reasonable to include ductwork and other systems that would be affected by a retrofit.
Philip Herriges
PM/PANeumann/Smith Architecture
143 thumbs up
August 23, 2010 - 5:54 pm
Tristan:
Our Owner will be going about obtaining a 3rd part economic audit, however, they have already planned to replace the existing units by 2020 (it is planned for in their long-term capital plan).
You have commented above that there is a 10-year consideration in that if it is determined to have a longer payback than 10 years that there is then an exemption to having to replace/retrofit the units but that the calculations/audit will need to be included in our credit submission.
Does the fact that our units will be replaced by 2020 (less than 10 years from the time that we'll submit) complicate our situation? Should we even aknowledge this fact in our narrative?
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11474 thumbs up
August 29, 2010 - 8:47 pm
Seems like a Catch-22. If they will be updating the systems within 10 years one would think they consider it economically justifiable. Given that, do you think you can get an audit that supports the exemption?Not mentioning the capital plan is certainly an option, although I couldn't comment on its advisability.
Philip Herriges
PM/PANeumann/Smith Architecture
143 thumbs up
August 30, 2010 - 4:03 pm
The problem is that they don't have the financing now and it's not on their horizon until 2020. They concede it needs to be done, but that it just inside the 10-year criteria for their capital plan.
It waits to be seen whether the audit will support this notion, but considering the extent to which the unit serves other tenant spaces, I suspect that it would show a payback well beyond 10-years.
Shillpa Singh
Senior Sustainability ManagerYR&G
131 thumbs up
August 30, 2010 - 6:44 pm
From our understanding, the economic feasibility study is a recommendation but not a credit requirement. The base building systems are called out for best practice to undertake an audit. As stated above, they are not subject to the credit requirements if the project chooses to not discuss them.