Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has dealt with a LEED cold dark shell project in California before. For LEED mininum energy credit; can a building be completely unconditioned and walls and roof be uninsulated? Future tenants will fit out the building, so no mechanical system selection or lighting design has been done yet and designed walls and roofs are uninsulated due to building being unconditioned. ASHRAE 90.1-2010 specifies minimum insulation requirements for walls and roof under semiheated/unconditioned category. However, does this apply to fully unconditioned buildings?
Thank you
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
March 10, 2023 - 5:02 pm
I believe that you still need to be able to show the savings needed to meet the prerequisite. In the case of a cold, dark shell virtually everything is identical to the baseline so it is hard to show savings. You only have to get to 2%. Are you installing exterior lighting? If so maybe that gets you the savings you need? Once you find a tenant you could include some requirements in the lease agreement in order to show the minimum savings.
elvin ruya
March 10, 2023 - 5:19 pm
Marcus thank you for your response. Do you know what would be the requirements for a completely unconditioned buildings? Because if LEED acccepts it, then envelope requirements will not matter. Thank you
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
March 10, 2023 - 7:30 pm
It doesn't work that way. For a CS project you have to model it as if it is fully occupied and fitted out. If the systems are not designed you have to model it the same as the baseline system. So in this case if nothing is designed basically everything would be modeled identical to the baseline and you would show no savings.