Dear all,
We are working on a project to be certified CI v4. The use is a software development office, the building is 100% glazing in a very hot climate. The owner will be installing blinds due to the glare factor and visual comfort for employees. The blinds are to be down during occupancy hours, especially in the south facade. Is there any way that we could be exempt from the daylight control requirements? It seems that the investment in the daylight control would not be fruitful in this situation.
Jorge Torres-Coto
Building Systems Commissioning EngineerEmpirical Engineering, LLC
17 thumbs up
July 18, 2016 - 2:04 pm
Gabriela
I am assuming the blinds are not "black out" type. They are probably for glare control, as such, they are probably translucent. Again, these are assumptions. Though ASHRAE 90.1-2010 Mandatory Requirements are for Daylighting Controls according to the "PRIMARY SIDE LIT AREA" definitions and Figure 3.3.
The only exceptions are: if the adjacent building is twice as high as the distance to the windows (i.e. a tall building next to your project, on that facade only); if your effective aperture is less than 0.10; Retail spaces
Check the assumptions I made, but even black out drapes are not included in the exemptions, unfortunately your project may have inherited a bad envelope design from the Base Building.
Thanks
Jorge
Gabriela Crespo
BECxP, CxA+BE, LEED AP BD+C, O+MRevitaliza Consultores
20 thumbs up
July 18, 2016 - 2:46 pm
Thank you Jorge! The blinds are not black out, they only let 1% of light through, as far as we know from the owner. I've looked at the reference you mention, and it seems there is no way around the requirement for this case.
Thanks for your help!