Prescriptive Method Questions

1) You are absolutely correct that if you were to combine everything into one bay, in stead of 3 bays, the results would be the same. You would do the calculation for the whole space and all the glazing area together. As described in step 5, if you found that the space was not compliant as a whole, you could still forgo some of the project square footage by assuming it was non-compliant until you reached a favorable ratio of WFA and VT. This particular sample divided the space into 3 bays to more closely match the way the LEED online form has divided out the calculation. 2) If one of your bays did not meet the requirement, it would mean that the square footage for that bay would be non-compliant. If the rest of the square footage is compliant and it account to at least 75% of the space, you can still get the credit. In all honesty, it is a bit arbitrary how you divide up the bays, especially for an open space. As mentioned for your first questions, you could just as easily combine everything into one bay and adjust the compliant square footage as necessary. The divisions would make more sense in a space, for example, with perimeter offices.

I think I have another question along these lines. I am confused as to if you can do your calculation based on general bays (NW, NE, etc.) even if you don't have an open office floor plan. For instance, we have a couple offices on the perimeter that are exceeding the VLT x WFR because they have such a small floor area for so much light. Is that the intention that these rooms would count against us? I am working on a lab space that has full height glazing and some glare control measures and it seems like we should be able to receive at least one point under EQc8.1 but we are coming in just below. We might need to just do Light Metering... Thanks in advance for your help!

I also face that situation for small office room. It is really easy to exceed the VLT X WFR limit of 0.18; For open office, the result is depending on the bay divided

Unfortunately the reference guide is not clear and consistant about exemptions. For Option 1- Light Simulation, the reference guide does give an exemption for exceeding the maximum footcandles if you have the proper glare control. The reference guide states "Designs that incorporate view-preserving automated shades for glare control may demonstrate compliance for only the minimum 25 fc illuminance level." However, It is not clear why this exemption is not also given for Option 2-Prescriptive method and Option 3- Measurement. It does look like the areas where the VLT/ WFR exceeds the limit would count against you. However, I would say there is a good argument that the exemption given for Option 1 should apply to all Options in theory. It might be worth asking the GBCI for clarification on the specific projects you are working on.