A new LEED Interpretation was released on 4/1/13 that is relevant to this credit.
LI #10279 disallows excluding high-activity spaces like gyms, or spaces that normally are not conditioned like warehouses from IEQc7, but offers an alternative calculation method for gyms, and an alternate compliance method for warehouses based on design alternatives such as radiant flooring; circulating fans; passive systems, such as nighttime air, heat venting, or wind flow; and localized active cooling.
I asked our LEEDuser expert Chris Schaffner of The Green Engineer what he thought about this Intepretation. He says it clarifies things, but doesn't help where help is needed: '95% of the people struggling with this are public schools with gyms. They should just make the gyms exempt,'" he opined.
What do others think of this Interpretation?
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Anthony Hardman
Building Performance AnalystThe Green Engineer
16 thumbs up
April 3, 2013 - 3:28 pm
The LI states that, "an alternative to the requirements of ASHRAE 55-2004 is acceptable" in these circumstances. I recently saw a project team propose the use of a health/fitness facility standard that would appear to meet the intent of this interpretation.
Woolpert
7 thumbs up
April 23, 2013 - 9:58 am
I've been involved in two recent projects which included in one case, indoor tennis courts, and in another case, a fitness center. The interpretation does nothing to remove the vaugeness that existed before. By saying "the project must determine acceptable thermal comfort conditions that meet the intent of the credit, and demonstrate that those conditions will be met" they leave it up to us to propose something and we are at the will of the reviewers opinion. So to me, the interpretation still leaves the credit in "limbo" for those spaces and I can't count on it in our credit/point strategy. We will do a lot of work researching and proposing a set of criteria, not knowing if it will be in vain depending on how the reviewers see it. That's the status of our application now for the project with the fitness center. We're waiting to see how the reviewers treat us.
Scott Bowman
LEED FellowIntegrated Design + Energy Advisors, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
519 thumbs up
April 24, 2013 - 8:56 am
This area does need work. We have had a couple of projects certified with these kinds of spaces (one had a gym, the other had a fitness room), and we included a narrative on what we felt was the standard of care for these kinds of rooms, higher temperature with air movement, and that seemed successful. Another is yet to be submitted that the whole building is a fitness, training, pool, and therapy building that is a shared facility for a hospital and a community. The pool has pretty good standards for defining comfort, but again the other spaces will fall on our standard of care and typical practice over our experience.
Nadja, your point of not being able to count on this credit is correct. We work to manage our clients expectations on this and other credits so they understand we are making a good faith effort, and giving them what we feel is the best and most efficient design, but we are not GBCI and cannot predict what they will or will not accept. There is a broad range of professional interpretation in our field, and we all must work within it.