Our LEED building consits on an 39 stories speculative office building that is on top of a 3 stories retail building. The retail will not apply for LEED certification.
The retail's roof will serve as a terrace for the speculative office building and will consit of a mixture of greenroof and hardscape.
¿Is there any insulation requirement for this slab? It will covered a retail space that will not be part of the LEED certification.
So far roof insulation requirements for the LEED building is observing R15 for the slab at level 39, but we want to confirm that the terrace is free of any insulation requirements.
Any comments will be appreciated.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5906 thumbs up
November 1, 2011 - 7:07 pm
Let me make sure I understand the question. Is it insulation between the top of the retail and the bottom of the office or is it insulation in a roof over the retail which serves as a terrace? If between the two spaces, then it would be considered a floor. If a roof, then a roof.
The insulation levels required are contained in Table 5.5-X in ASHRAE 90.1-2007 and vary by climate zone.
The real question should be what is the appropiate level of insulation given the situation. If it is the roof of a retail facility it probably makes sense to insulate it in most climates.
Christopher Schaffner
CEO & FounderThe Green Engineer
LEEDuser Expert
963 thumbs up
November 2, 2011 - 11:47 am
The office building floor would only require insulation if it were unconditioned space below.
The retail roof/office building terrace should be insulated, but since the retail is not being certified, LEED will not care what you do there. It will not affect the results of the office building energy model.
Gabriela Hernández Castillo
Architect, LEED AP BD+CSYASA - México
201 thumbs up
November 8, 2011 - 2:50 pm
Thank you so much.
Marcus, the retail's roof will serve as a terrace of the office building. I forgot to mention that the retaill surpass by a lot the office building perimeter (that's why its roof can serve as a terrace for the office building). It makes sense to insulate it, however it is not a requirement by law, so it might end up having no insulation at all by ownership requirements. Only LEED requirements (the prerrequisites) will be observed.
Thank you Christopher, it makes sense, i thought the same too, that LEED will not care whether the space below complies with ASHAREA (including obviously the insulation requirements).
I just wanted to double check.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5906 thumbs up
November 8, 2011 - 3:20 pm
Wow no applicable local or state energy code to require a minimum insulation level. Where is the project located?
Those of use involved with LEED do care about proper insulation levels but LEED may not require you to do anything about it. :-)
A potentially tricky part could be where you draw the line for your LEED project. If the terrace is in the LEED boundary, the horizontal placement of that line will need to be defined.
Gabriela Hernández Castillo
Architect, LEED AP BD+CSYASA - México
201 thumbs up
November 8, 2011 - 3:37 pm
Thank you Marcus. The project will be built by phases, being phase 1 the office building (the one applying for LEED certification). The LEED boundary is drawn covering exactly that phase leaving the retail out of the LEED scope, but including the terrace within phase 1.