EQp2 Residential Buildings that Allow Smoking Testing

Curtis - did you ever receive or find any guidance for the blower door testing requirements?

With respect to sampling, the v2009 rating system language references Chapter 4 of the Residential Manual for Compliance with California's 2001 Energy Efficiency Standards and includes a link to that standard.

LEED Interpretation 5170 summarizes the sampling methodology from that standard as follows.

... residential units will be grouped together based on unit type. Testing will be conducted on one (1) in seven (7) units in each group. Should any of the residential units fail the test, the construction contractor can resolve the issue prior to re-testing that unit. Should any of the remaining 1 in 7 units in that group fail the test, the entire group will be deemed to fail. The contractor will then correct every unit in that group prior to every unit being tested.

Thank you Ben - wondering if you can also help with another related question:

I am working on a a large multifamily building for EBOM with over 500 units. The owner does not want to eliminate smoking in the apartments. The building is pressurized and each apartment is exhausted 100% of the time. We can easily prove the pressure differential between the hallways and apartment units. Is this sufficient to satisfy the tobacco smoke prerequisite or is blower door testing required for occupied units to prove that smoke does not transfer between apartments? The blower door testing will be very intrusive to tenants and costly. Have you completed a similar project with a large number of apartment units? Or Jason Franken - have you?
Interested to hear how others have approached this...

Blower door testing is still required as far as I know. Are there any vacant units that could be tested? Maybe if you could at least conduct the testing for the vacant units and then adopt a policy to verify leakage for other units when they turnover, it might be plausible. But, this type of strategy would need to be confirmed through a project specific LEED interpretation.

Thanks Ben - we are moving forward with the blower door testing following the sampling rate in the reference guide. For a building this size, it really is quite an effort!

Another question for you: Is it fair to assume we are to use the same sampling rate for the pressure differential testing as we are using for the blower door testing? The doors to the residential spaces are not weather-sealed requiring us to perform the pressure differential testing for the smoking rooms. With every apartment considered a smoking room, we can't be expected to test every apartment - right?

I look forward to your input! Thank you!

-MC