Dear all,
I would like to inquire more about the Target Finder Rating tool. Assuming I entered the consumption values and all input parameters, I will generate an energy performance rating.
1) Should this rating be greater than 75 or 50?
I performed the thermal modeling of a school and got 17% improvement over the ASHRAE Baseline.
2) Is it obligatory to establish an energy performance rating goal for the facility design using EPA’s Target Finder rating tool?
For some reason, the site energy intensity for the "Average Building" (with a rating of 50) happens to be too low (16kBtu/ft2/year) which is definitely much less than the average school consumption in the US (68kBtu/ft2/year).
3) Can I be exempted from this target finder tool because of my 17% improvement over the baseline case?
Many thanks,
Omar
If not, then what
Christopher Schaffner
CEO & FounderThe Green Engineer
LEEDuser Expert
962 thumbs up
August 9, 2010 - 8:23 pm
The LEED form wants you to enter your Target Finder score, but the reviewers do not use that info directly to judge the accuracy of you model, so go ahead and put in the number what ever your result is.
Answers to your specific questions.
1) your rating is what it is. Ideally, you should be over 75, but it really depends on a lot of things, and the Target Finder is a pretty crude tool. It's really there more as sanity check. If your score is at the very high or very low end, you may want to take another look at your model.
2) Yes. Put something in there.
3) No.
If your model shows only 16kBTU/sf/yr, I think you need to go back and check your model. I'd be surprised if your lights and plug loads were that low, never mind the heating and cooling.