From preliminary submission, we have outside air measurements (taken aug 20) of some spaces that do not meet EQp1 requirements. However, our building engineers (mechanical) noted that outside air supply to adjacent spaces meet and exceed EQp1 required measurements and can be adjusted to compensate for the deficiency of the aforementioned spaces.
My query:
Will making adjustments and taking new measurements at this stage (after performance period and preliminary review) such that all spaces meet EQp1 requirement be acceptable for final submisison?
Hoping for some advise soon.
Patty Breech
Sustainability ConsultantUHG Consulting
16 thumbs up
January 13, 2011 - 8:25 pm
Hi Pablo,
This will all depend on your review team, as each is different. Decisions handed down in one case will often directly contradict decisions handed down in others. All I can offer you is my experience, but i cannot promise that it will be identical to yours.
We submitted our AHU measurements for this prerequisite and were told that the project team had misunderstood the meaning of "worst-case conditions as it relates to EQp1." We thus re-tested over a third of our units at the proper worst-case conditions AFTER the performance period and preliminary review stage, and our project was ultimately approved for LEED certification.
I don't know if this experience translates exactly to your case, as it seems that in your situation the building was not receiving the required minimum of outside air during the performance period, if I'm interpreting your comment correctly (whereas ours was, we just didn't prove it in the right way).
Hope this helps.
Dan Ackerstein
PrincipalAckerstein Sustainability, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
819 thumbs up
January 13, 2011 - 9:52 pm
Pablo - My experience as a reviewer is consistent with Patty's. Although the goal of the prerequisite is (at least partially) to ensure that your EAp2-related energy efficiency was not achieved at the expense of reasonable ventilation rates, in reality the GBCI has been understanding that the EQp1 calculations are not easy to get right, and projects may either miscalculate or accidentally under-ventilate. I can't recall any project that I was involved in being rejected on EQp1 grounds if they were ultimately able to achieve the required OA rates, even if that achievement was not documented (or did not occur) until after the performance period had concluded. Ultimately, the GBCI wants the review process to improve building operations for the future, not solely evaluate operations in the past.
Nelina Loiselle
Above Green239 thumbs up
October 17, 2013 - 11:36 am
On this same note, what do you all think about this situation: we have all our OA measurement done for each AHU and all are complying except 1 because the TAB contractor thought it was acceptable to have the OA be +/- 10% of the OA rates we gave him from our VRP calculations. So, he under ventilated one of the AHUs by about 20 cfms. We finally got the contractor to come back and adjust the AHU and increase the cfms to reach the minimum. He came back this month (October) and all our other PP ended on Aug 31st. Does this mean we now need to extend all our other PP to Sept. 31 so that they call end within 30 days of each other? Or do you think the reviewers will accept having the one AHU measured in October? It has been nearly impossible for us to collect data from the building tenants so going back and asking for Sept. data will be very difficult.
Thank so much for any thoughts on this :)