Has anyone had an issue with complying with ASHRAE 62.1 for natural ventilation of a space that is being used as a maintenance garage?
We have 3 garage doors that are open to a large garage type area (about 60' X 60'). There are other shops within the building that are mechanically ventilated with a fan because they do not have operable openings to the outdoors. But according to ASHRAE 62.1, we can only claim natural ventilation for a distance of 2H into the building, with H being the ceiling height. In my particular case, that distance is 27 feet. We are far exceeding the 4% requirement of operable openings to the outdoors based on our floor area.
The building is already complete and occupied. The garage area is the bulk of the building, with some work shops and office spaces making up the rest of the building. The shops are heated by a gas fired furnace and the offices are conditioned with small multi zone heat pumps. We just reviewed review comments back and got the comment about the garage area not complying with ASHRAE 62.1.
It seems like a waste of energy to install an additional fan into this large area, especially since it is a garage. We are hoping to appeal this based on the use of the space. I am hoping we aren't the first group to deal with this. Has anyone successfully appealed something like this?
Christopher Schaffner
CEO & FounderThe Green Engineer
LEEDuser Expert
962 thumbs up
January 26, 2017 - 10:49 am
First, make sure you are looking at the right version of ASHRAE 62.1 for your project. V3 uses 62.1-2007, which requires the opening be within 25 ft of area being served.
It appears to me you do not meet the letter of the requirements. One option would be to argue for an "engineered natural ventilation system" To do this you'd need to show in some other way that the areas further than 25 ft are getting fresh air.