In our building, fossil fuel is 30 time less expensive than electricity. And as we use fossil fuel and electricity for heating (mainly fossil fuel but we need a little bit of electricity), in the baseline we need to consider only heating with gaz according to ASHRAE (table G3.1.1A), thus even if we have a 40% heating energy consumption reduction in our project case compare to baseline, heating is approximatle 90% more expensive in our project case than baseline case and then we are far from reaching energy saving prerequisite.
Considering our project energy cost circumstances, is there a way to consider energy saving rather than cost saving or to be able to consider same proportion of electricity and fossil fuel use for the baseline than for project case ?
Thanks in advance.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5899 thumbs up
February 12, 2012 - 2:40 pm
You can't use energy savings.
I would need to know the details of the proposed HVAC system design to try and address your second question.
Christopher Schaffner
CEO & FounderThe Green Engineer
LEEDuser Expert
963 thumbs up
March 1, 2012 - 8:15 am
I'm guessing this is an international project. In the US you could use the default EIA rates (http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data.cfm#electriccosts - find the section marked "Average Retail Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers:" there is a spreadsheet you can download). Not sure if something similar exists in your location.
I also think you should go back and look at your baseline system selection. If you have fossil fuel in the proposed, the baseline should be fossil fuel heating only, and the disparity described should be eliminated.