Hi,
I have a doubt on how to model the baseline HVAC system of a specific shopping center. In this project, it was specified the HVAC system which serves the mall building and some of the stores. The rest of the building has no HVAC system.
According to G3.1#10, where no cooling system exists or no cooling system has been specified, the cooling system shall be identical to the system modeled in the baseline building.
I've adopted the following procedure, does anyone knows if it's reasonable:
- For the malls and stores served by the specified HVAC system, I've modeled the HVAC baseline system as #8, since the conditioned area represents more than 150,000 ft2.
- For the areas for which the HVAC system hasn't been specified, I've modeled the baseline system based on the conditioned area: for the areas which have less than 25,000 ft2, I've considered system #4. For the areas which have from 25,000 to 150,000 ft2, I've considered system #6. Since each tenant can install its independent HVAC system, each area was modelled with its own system, based on the procedure explained above.
Is this approach correct? Would it be interesting to model this project differently?
Regards,
Luana Eid
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5907 thumbs up
July 25, 2013 - 4:47 pm
The approach is not correct. You can only model a different baseline system if one of the exceptions to G3.1.1 applies. So if Exception b or c applies then you would model a system #4 for those spaces only.