“We are working on an existing classroom and office building at the University of Hawaii, which will undergo a complete remodeling under LEED-NC v.3.0. The private faculty office are currently individually cooled by window A/C units and the classrooms are cooled by a central chiller/AHU system. The proposed design will remove all of the existing air conditioning systems. Ceiling fans and operable windows will be installed in the private faculty offices. Acoustically treated ducts will allow tradewind breezes to blow fresh air into the classrooms to cool them. The classrooms will also be provided with central dehumidification systems, which will operate at night. The auditorium and certain other areas where computer servers are housed will be air conditioned at all times. Because of the effort being taken to convert the building from its current air conditioned state to a naturally ventilated mode, can the air conditioned building be used as the baseline for the purposes of Credit EA1?”
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Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5912 thumbs up
April 7, 2011 - 8:14 am
The baseline is defined by Appendix G and is generally independent of the equipment being removed in a renovation. So the existing air conditioning system cannot be used in the baseline.
Claiming credit for natural ventilation is not a simple issue to deal with. For more on the subject see this post and replies - http://www.leeduser.com/credit/NC-2009/EAp2#comment-10823