I have a project that is using a district steam system; modeled under the streamlined path. I used the reference "Treatment of District Energy or Campus Energy in LEED v2 and LEED 2009 - Design & Construction". My questions are as followed.
1. Does my virtual fuel rate for the district system seem invalid?
I calculated the virtual fuel using the equation in the reference. The value obtain from the calculation for the district steam rate is $43.3 / therm, which seems very high for a rate. The minimum energy performance calculator flags my value and asks for a narrative justifying the value.
The virtual rates used to determine the district steam rate are below:
Virtual Gas Rate: $0.93/therm; Virtual Electrical Rate: $ 0.1387/kWh
Calculation Method: District Steam Rate = ($ 0.93/therm)*(1therm/100 MBtu)*(1.81) + ($0.1387/kWh)*(3) = $0.433/MBtu = $43.3/Therm
2. how do i determine the number of points i earned ?
The table just offers the cap, but does not offer the point distribution for the district system, do i just interpolate for the points. The minimum energy performance calculator downloaded from USGBC does not offer any information for the point distribution from the DES
Any help would be deeply appreciated.
-Luigi Festa
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
January 17, 2018 - 12:42 pm
1. The MBTU in the DESv2 is million BTU. So your conversion should be 1 therms/0.1 MBTU.
2. You use the same point thresholds as any other project depending on whether it is an existing or new building.
Luigi Festa
MEPHighland Associates
February 26, 2018 - 8:28 am
what do the following impact if they do not impact the points threshold?
"Treatment of District or Campus Thermal Energy in LEED" states EAc1 point restrictions using energy model
DES option 1 has a points cap up to 10 pts
DES option 2 has a points floor of 6 pts
Thank You Marcus
-Luigi Festa
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
February 26, 2018 - 12:18 pm
The threshold is the percentage savings you have to demonstrate to earn a certain number of points. These thresholds are part of the Optimize Energy Performance credit and do not change if you are applying the DES v2. See -https://www.usgbc.org/credits/new-construction/v2009/eac1
The cap limits option 1 to up to 10 points. The threshold associated with that will vary depending upon whether it is existing or new or a combination. The floor mean you can't pursue option 2 unless the overall savings are at least equal to the threshold associated with 6 points.
Luigi Festa
MEPHighland Associates
February 26, 2018 - 12:54 pm
Thank You Marcus