We are working on an elementary school project and we're trying to correctly model the sun shading. We understand we should "count" the benefits from permanent sun shading devices designed at windows (for example, projections from the building). We also understand that you cannot "count" any shading benefits from adjacent buildings on neighboring sites (because perhaps that other building will be torn down in the future).

However, we believe we should model the shading effects on our own building. In other words, one wing of the school is 2 stories and the other wing of the building is one story. The two story wing will shade the single story wing for at least part of the day. Is this considered adjacent building shading? Or, can we submit it as "self shading".

We are modeling the project using Trane Trace which calls building shading "adjacent building shading"- which is not to be counted by LEED. We've categorized it as adjacent building shading simply because Trane Trace doesn't have a "self shading" option.

Is self shading a legitimate strategy to demonstrate projected energy savings? And, if so, how can we communicate to our reviewer that we really mean "self shading" and not "adjacent building shading".

And no, there is no way the 2 story wing of the building will ever be demolished.

Any help is appreciated.

Joanna