LEED for Labs: claiming credit for reduced ventilation?

Alejandra Menchaca

Vice President

Thornton Tomasetti

LEEDuser Basic Member

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March 4, 2021

Colleagues,

As we all know, ventilation rates must be kept the same between the LEED Baseline and proposed energy models. However, we're aware of projects that have been able to claim energy savings associated to reducing ventilation using systems like Aircuity.

Have any of you successfully claimed credit for reduced airflow due to the use of high-performance hoods (e.g., 60fpm face velocity) and/or sash auto closers? If so, did you have to go through the USGBC to get approval, or did you simply include it as another ECM?

Thanks in advance,

Ale.

Alejandra Menchaca, PhD, LEED AP, WELL AP | Vice President
Thornton Tomasetti
Direct 617.250.4177 | Mobile 617.999.0274
amenchaca@ThorntonTomasetti.com | www.ThorntonTomasetti.com

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Lois Vitt Sale

Chief Sustainability Officer

Wight & Company

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Fri, 03/05/2021 - 16:18

Alejandra – I know when we wanted to show the need for less ventilation energy when employing living walls to filter return air, thereby reducing the volume of outside air, we were told that we would need to get an exception from ASHRAE 62.1 and were not permitted to show any deviation from code. At that point, we abandoned pursuing any exception or alternative compliance path. L F

Adam McMillen

Director of Sustainability

IMEG

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Fri, 03/05/2021 - 17:02

Ale, We've had success claiming credit for 'automatic demand ventilation control' enabled by monitoring the indoor space. See snippet from table G3.1.4. attached. While CO2 is most common (and readily accepted by LEED), other space pollutants monitored by aircuity are similar indicators and achieve the same reduction in airflow/energy savings. Sash closers should fall in the same category but those savings are less predictable/documented. The low velocity hoods are a tougher sell but you could try to justify the 100 fpm as the standard of care and see if they accept the savings.