New Equipment with or without 0.5lb of Refrigerant

Michelle Rosenberger

Partner

ArchEcology

LEEDuser Premium Member

421 thumbs up

November 28, 2016

I have a project with a cafeteria that has a custom walk in cooler and a variety of refrigeration units. I have been flagged by the reviewer on EApr3 due to the potential that one of these units has more than 0.5lbs of refrigerant. I realize that the requirements dictate you should list any equipment that uses refrigerant in excess of 0.5lbs. However, this information is difficult to obtain and I am confused about why this is an issue with new equipment at all. The cooler was custom built for this project, and the refrigerators were all purchased new. There is no possibility that any of this refrigeration equipment could possibly have CFCs in it. Can anyone clarify the intent of this review comment? And how my spending hours to track down the weight of refrigerants involved in numerous pieces of equipment makes any difference to the non-CFC refrigerants I would ultimately list in the table should I actually need to?

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Melissa Kelly

Sustainability Specialist

Gensler

LEEDuser Basic Member

66 thumbs up

Mon, 03/06/2017 - 16:19

Hi Michelle, This is a standard review comment for almost any project with a commercial kitchen, and you can respond by confirming in a narrative that the equipment does not contain any CFCs. The intent is just to make sure that this miscellaneous equipment isn't falling under the radar. If your project is pursuing the Enhanced Refrigerant credit, it's more critical because these pieces of equipment do need to be included in the calculations.