I'm confused about the Refrigerant Charge as a requirement for this credit. The language of the LEED 2009 manual in the "Select Equipment with Efficient Refrigerant Charge" paragraph under Implementation would suggest that Charge values MUST comply with Table 2 in that same section. However, there is no mention of Refrigerant Charge, other than its definition as it applies to the Impact Formula, in the Credit Requirements.
Further more, if you look closely at Sample Calculation 2 for the Office Building, the Rc values for the pony chiller and AC unites are way above what is allowed by Table 2. Yet, it still says the credit is awarded because the Average Refrigerant Environmental Impact is less than 100.
I'm inclined to think that, as long as my impact calculation comes out to be less than 100, I should be OK even if some of my equipment exceeds the max Rc. Can anyone confirm or refute this for sure?
Shillpa Singh
Senior Sustainability ManagerYR&G
131 thumbs up
June 14, 2010 - 1:38 pm
Kenneth
It looks like Table 2 is an example of maximum refrigerant charge for a single equipment with some assumptions and default leak rate of 2%, and end of year loss of 10%. If you find the equipment installed on your project has lower refrigerant charge, please use the actual number in the calculation. The credit is awarded if the Average Atmosphere Refrigerant Impact is less than 100. It would be very helpful to support all calculations and refrigerant charges with manufacturer data and cut sheets