small DES

For a preliminary review I modeled a building that is heated and cooled by four geothermal heat pumps that are located in a technical room within the building. According to the design, the four heat pumps are connected to a primary loop while there are two secondary loops: the first one supplies the building that we are dealing with, the second loop is going to supply another building, which is not built yet. The reviewers want to understand better the system and how it was modeled. It seems that such a system is a “District or Campus Energy System (DES)”, according to the definition of the document “Treatment of District or Campus Thermal Energy in LEED V2 and LEED 2009 – Design & Construction”: “a central thermal energy conversion plant and transmission and/or distribution system that provides thermal energy (heating via hot water or steam, and/or cooling via chilled water) to more than one building, and where some part of the system (whether the energy conversion, or the transmission and distribution) extends beyond the boundaries of the LEED project site. Examples include (..) a single 500-ton chiller located within one building that also serves a second, separate building.” Actually, I hadn’t considered that document for the preliminary review. I considered that the two buildings are similar, they both are going to be occupied by offices. As approximation, I considered that the thermal loads are going to be proportional to the square footage. Therefore I calculated the power of the heat pumps and the number of the bore holes that I modeled proportionally to the square footage of the building that I am dealing with. I considered the real efficiencies of the heat pumps and reasonable curves. Could such an approach be acceptable? How should I present it to the reviewers? I would avoid to model also the other building (it is not part of the same project)…