Hi,
I'm working in a project that has 4 conditioned office rooms, which are enclosed by walls, and a café (adjacent to the office) that is natural ventilated.
The café is open to outside area (open deck and a garden). However the building (including the deck and the gardem) is surrounded by a polycarbonate material.
I would like to know if I can consider the café as an exterior area and model only the office spaces or I need to model the café and put a virtual HVAC system to switch it on when the natural ventilation is inappropriate to provide thermal comfort.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
August 13, 2012 - 10:47 am
If the cafe does not have an HVAC system and it is outside (no solid roof and/or walls) you don't need to model any HVAC there.
For guidance on modeling natural ventilation see the Advanced Energy Modeling Guide for LEED.
Carolina Vergnano
LEED APConcremat
145 thumbs up
August 23, 2012 - 10:03 am
Hi Marcus,
I still confusing on how to madel this project. According to your response I don't need to model the Cafe with the a HVAC system, but by reading the Advanced Energy Modeling for LEED v1.0 I need to model a virtual HVAC system. Do I need to model the Café? I was thinking to model only the office spaces and add the cafe load on it. Am I right?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
August 23, 2012 - 11:00 am
Does the cafe have an HVAC system? Is it outside? If it has no HVAC system and it is outside there is nothing to model except any hot water, equipment and lighting loads. You do need to model those if they are part of your LEED project as all energy use within and associated with the project need to be modeled.
Carolina Vergnano
LEED APConcremat
145 thumbs up
August 23, 2012 - 2:16 pm
The cafe is adjacent to the office and has a roof, but no wall and HVAC system. According to you I consider the cafe as outside.So need I model only the office and add the cafe hot water, equipment and lighting load on it.Am I right? Can I consider th lighting of the cafe as an exterior lighting (canopies)?
Thanks!
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
August 23, 2012 - 2:46 pm
Sounds like outside to me.
Model all energy use associated with the cafe (and of course the offices).
The outdoor lighting for canopies and overhangs (1.25 W/sf) is very close to the values for interior dining spaces so that makes sense to me.