Our LEED project has adopted lighting control as energy-saving strategy for parking garage and documented as exceptional calculation in EAp2 and EAc1. Soon we received USGBC's comment asking for project references to demonstrate that these are not standard practices.
Original texts are as below:
“...the Baseline case description should provide evidence that reduced lighting schedule is not standard practice for similar newly constructed facilities (three facilities built within the past five years of the project registration date) where the project is located.”
Since it's quite impossible for us to have information about buildings we did not build, are there any alternatives to address the problems? Have anyone encountered the same situation before?
Many thanks!
Kathy
Christopher Schaffner
CEO & FounderThe Green Engineer
LEEDuser Expert
962 thumbs up
January 7, 2019 - 9:50 am
One simple option is to show that local utilities provide incentives for the ECM. If the utility is paying people to do it, it's not standard practice.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
January 7, 2019 - 10:08 am
Has anyone on the project team or anyone on the owner's side been involved with a project where a parking garage has been installed? These do not have to be from projects that you built. This experience can come from the company that designed the lighting system for the garage or designed the garage itself. Have they done any local projects? Can they write a letter to demonstrate that this is not standard practice? When preparing an exceptional calculation the project team is required to justify the baseline choice. In some areas this type of control is required by code. If no one has any local project experience then you will need to provide some other justification for the baseline choice that demonstrates that it is not standard practice in parking garages in this area.
Kathy Wong
January 8, 2019 - 4:43 am
Thanks Christopher. That sounds workable. We will try to see if there are any local incentives made for this strategy.
Kathy Wong
January 8, 2019 - 4:48 am
Thanks Marcus! We have project references on the country but not the exact city our project is built. That's why we are struggling to provide any references. Thanks for your suggestions! I guess we will look for other justifications as an evidence.