Dear all,

we’re currently involved in several hospitality projects pursuing LEED certification. We have a doubt related with energy performance calculations, namely in what relates with decorative lighting. Many of our projects include decorative luminaires in different spaces of the hotel front of house areas (guest rooms, circulations, restaurants, etc). Our doubt is how these luminaires shall be considered in the scope of the energy simulation (proposed and baseline buildings).

Regarding this issue, three questions:

  1. if lighting limits are being calculated using the space-by-space method, an additional lighting power allowance is available for decorative luminaires of up to 10,8 W/m2 (section 9.6.2a of ASHRAE 90.1). In what relates with baseline building energy simulation, this additional allowance shall be considered equal as that of proposed building, correct?

  1. in some zones (e.g. guestrooms) and/or design concepts, sometimes it is not completely clear which are the functional and decorative luminaires. In these special cases, are there any guidelines that we shall follow to allocate the total lighting power between functional and decorative categories?

  1. some lighting control systems include addressable luminaires/circuits an local controls that allow lighting scenes to be defined by the user. In these cases, which are the evidences required to demonstrate that those control systems ensure that decorative luminaires can be automatically controlled and separated from the remaining lighting fixtures?

Regards.