Our project includes a separate non-LEED certifiable building with no regularly occupied space and no FTE, that houses the renewable energy and ground source heat pump systems for the main building, as well as charging stations for a fleet of 6 electric vehicles, and the recycling and trash storage, general storage, and one small bathroom. The building is minimally conditioned to keep pipes from freezing.

I understand we need to model this ancillary building for EAp2 and EAc1, even though the ASHRAE 90.1 definition would technically deem it unconditioned, according to our mech engineer (cooling capacity below 5 Btu/h.ft2 and heating capacity below 20 Btu/h.ft2).

I have 3 unique questions:

1) Are we interpreting the LEED requirements accurately, assuming that we do need to model this second building? Are there any suggestions or cautions for modeling and documenting two buildings for one LEED submittal?

2) Should we also include the building in the Gross Floor Area (GFA) under the project info forms, which calculates building-to-site area for MPR-7 (as well as several other credits)? I see that the GFA definition excludes vehicle parking, so maybe the area of the ancillary building should only be applied to EA credits (yes/no)? If yes, how do we differentiate the area included/excluded, since the PIf2 is linked to the EA credits?

3) Do we need to account for the vehicle charging stations in the building which will use a portion of the solar energy generated on site. If so, how would we go about estimating and entering this energy load into the model and/or LEED form?