Exceptions

Thanks for your response Dan. Generally, I'd agree that a good explanation was all that was needed. However, there are CIRs that lead me to think otherwise such as the one noted below.

EQc8.1 4/20/2007 - "Credit Interpretation Request
We are designing an academic building for a university client. The building contains offices, student areas, classrooms, auditoriums and specialized labs. We have organized the building to maximize daylight throughout, however, many spaces in the building are unoccupied much of the time, when the are occupied, it is typically for a one hour duration. Credit 8.1 requires that 75% of all regularly occupied spaces have the minimum 2% day lighting factor. Regularly occupied spaces are defined as areas where workers are seated or standing as they work inside a building.

Some of the specialized teaching spaces in this building are designed to accommodate sensitive audio visual recording equipment for observing and documenting student performance. Other spaces, such as the auditorium and lecture halls, are designed specifically for high tech audio visual presentations and distance learning. The AV requirements for these rooms are not compatible with ample daylight. In addition, these spaces are unoccupied much of the time, and occupants are typically only in the rooms for a one hour duration. In our opinion, these rooms do not qualify as ""regularly occupied"" spaces.

Our building is on a sloped site so the lowest floor is built into the hill on one side. Doing this enabled us to reduce the footprint of the building and the impervious area. We grouped some of the very specialized simulation labs against the basement wall built into the hill. These labs, if they had windows, would have blackout shades drawn all the time as natural daylight would negatively impact the simulation work, observation and recording. These labs will be unused for a substantial portion of the day; when they are used, the simulation sessions typically last for two hours or less.

Every regularly occupied office or student area has a window that exceeds the 2% daylight factor. There will be a group of office spaces for part time faculty. These spaces will be largely un-used except for a couple of hours on the days the part-time faculty member is in the building to teach a class and meet with students. In our opinion, these are not ""regularly occupied"" spaces.

We want to confirm our interpretation that itinerantly occupied auditoriums, classrooms, simulation labs and part-time faculty offices are not ""regularly occupied"" spaces for the purposes of this credit.
Ruling
This CIR is inquiring if auditoriums, classrooms, simulation labs, and part-time faculty offices can be excluded from compliance with the requirements of EQc8.1 based on intermittent occupancy schedules and activities that are hindered by daylight.

The applicant has indicated that in some of these spaces the activities would be negatively impacted by the presence of daylight. The credit requirements for EQc8.1 specifically exclude spaces where tasks would be hindered by the use of daylight. For all questionable spaces to be excluded, please clearly delineate the areas of the project being excluded from the calculations and provide a brief narrative describing the rationale and assumptions made for each excluded area in the certification documentation for this credit.

It appears from the information provided in this CIR that only the simulation labs may fall under this exception. Auditoriums, classrooms, and offices often benefit from the introduction of daylight. While daylight may not be desirable for some of the stated uses, such as slideshows, there are other uses that would benefit from having daylight. It may be possible to include daylight controls in the design of the space to allow daylight when desired while providing control when the daylight hinders operations. There are many excellent examples of daylit auditoriums, classrooms, and offices, and the narrative provided in the CIR request does not provide a compelling argument to justify the exclusion of these spaces from the daylight calculations."