Hi,
I'm working in another project that is attempting multiple building certification. Some of the buildings are connected by walkways and vertical circulation, i.e., there is only one vertical circulation connected to the 4 buildings . Should I consider these buildings as one model and model only one baseline? or Should I model one baseline for each building?
Thanks.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5867 thumbs up
December 11, 2012 - 9:50 am
As i understand it each building must demonstrate compliance. You could still model them as one but would need to set it up so the buildings can be separated in the results. In eQUEST this would involve placing each building on separate meters.
Marina Andrade
Sustainability Consultancy ServicesCushman & Wakefield
17 thumbs up
December 12, 2012 - 11:14 am
Hello Marcus,
That means that I will have one baseline model for each buiding? How do I model the consuption of the elevator, as it belongs to the four buildings?
Thanks for your help.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5867 thumbs up
December 12, 2012 - 11:43 am
Each building must demonstrate compliance so that means each needs a baseline. Where is the elevator located? If it is in one of the buildings it could be included there. Just explain where you have modeled it.
Marina Andrade
Sustainability Consultancy ServicesCushman & Wakefield
17 thumbs up
December 12, 2012 - 2:01 pm
The problem is that there is only one vertical circulation (elevators) between the buildings, i.e., the elevators are not located inside of any building, they are between the buildings that we call "blocks". Thats the reason to group these buildings (blocks) in to one building model and compare to one baseline model.
What do you think?
Thanks.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5867 thumbs up
December 12, 2012 - 2:13 pm
You could just include the elevators in the closest building model or simply put them on a separate meter as well.
It is very hard for me to say how you should model a project I am not really familiar with. Are the buildings identical? Is the building type the same? In some scenarios it would not matter if you lumped them together, in other scenarios it may make a difference.
Marina Andrade
Sustainability Consultancy ServicesCushman & Wakefield
17 thumbs up
December 14, 2012 - 8:18 am
Hi Marcus,
These four buildings are geometrical identical with the same building type.
We had done a CIR for a project in the situation. The only difference is that the walkways that connect the building had a lobby. They had accepted the CIR, saying that we could model only one baseline and proposed building model, claiming the walkways were regular occupied spaces.
Do you think the reviewer would complain if the buildings are lumped together?
Do you think the best way is to model them separately?
Appreciate your help.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5867 thumbs up
December 14, 2012 - 9:27 am
So if they are all identical you would not likely see a difference in the results if you modeled them separately or together. Are they all connected at the podium or basement levels or in some other way? Do they share a central plant?
If you have a CIR saying to model them together then I would do that and the reviewer should be ok.
Again hard for me to say what is the best way to model it.
Marina Andrade
Sustainability Consultancy ServicesCushman & Wakefield
17 thumbs up
December 14, 2012 - 11:59 am
The underground garage connects all the buildings (there are 16 buildings in total) and all the buildings are shred with the same central plant.
The CIR that I mentioned is about another project, which had regular occupied walkways. The walkways of the project are not regular occupied.
Thanks for your help.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5867 thumbs up
December 14, 2012 - 12:18 pm
If they are identical, connected and share a central plant then it probably makes sense to model them all together.
Marina Andrade
Sustainability Consultancy ServicesCushman & Wakefield
17 thumbs up
December 17, 2012 - 6:13 am
When you say "model them all together", you mean the 16 buildings? How about the baseline? Should I model only one baseline?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5867 thumbs up
December 17, 2012 - 9:43 am
Again hard for me to say. Originally you mentioned 4 buildings but it does not really matter.
When you have individual buildings within a single LEED submission you would typically have to demonstrate that each complies with 90.1 individually. In your case they are identical so whether you demonstrate compliance individually or add them together it should not really make a difference.
With a share central plant you can follow the DES guidance or treat the output of the plant as purchased energy as required by Appendix G.
Marina Andrade
Sustainability Consultancy ServicesCushman & Wakefield
17 thumbs up
December 17, 2012 - 11:42 am
Ok!
Thank you very much for your help Marcus.