Helo al!

We are evaluating the LEED certification potential of a new winery that will be built in Portugal (using the rating system LEED BD+C v4: New Construction and Major Renovation).

The wine production process requires fermentation tanks to be kept at a controlled temperature (below 28ºC).  For that purpose,  these fermentation tanks  (stainless steel, volumes between 6 m3 and 30 m3) have a cooling jacket fed by chilled water (10ºC). Tanks and associated chilled water piping are traditionally not thermally insulated since:

  1. fermentation (and thus tank temperature control) takes place for only a short period of time (about 1 month per year). This circumstance obviously penalizes the payback of thermal insulation.
  2. the building zone where fermentation tanks are located is occupied and does not have any active HVAC system. One of the main reasons why this zone dos not have active an active HVAc system is precisely because fermentation tanks have an indirect space cooling effect (note that even with the contribute of the tanks, indoor air temperatures can reach 30 ºC).
  3.  

The question is: in what concerns ASHRAE 90.1 - 2010 mandatory requirements for thermal insulation (section 6.4.4.1.3):

  • do fermentation tanks need to be thermally insulated? If yes, to which extent?
  • does the chilled water piping in the vicinity of the tanks need to be insulated?

Thanks for your attention. I’m looking forward to your reply.