Hi,
It happens fairly often here in Quebec, that we have a heating system that mainly runs on electricity, and we use natural gas to lower the building's grid demand during extremely cold weather. This results in a use of natural gas for heating about 5% of the time during the winter. During this time, the whole building would be heated on natural gas.
In this case, how would I go about modelling my baseline heating system's energy type? Is it considered Hybrid, in which case my baseline will run mostly on fossil fuels? Should I try to match the ratio electricity/natural gas of my proposed building?
Local code (NECB) here says the following:
"6) If the proposed building uses a given energy source to meet a heating, cooling, service water heating, or ventilation load, the reference building shall also use that same energy source to meet the corresponding load.
7) If the proposed building uses more than one energy source to meet a specific load, the reference building shall use the same energy sources in the same proportions and with the same operating priority as the proposed building."
Is there anything equivalent to that for LEED/ASHRAE 90.1? It seems like a bit of a cheat code in regards to GHG emission reductions when your baseline is 100% gas, and your proposed is 95% electricity.
Thanks!
