Forum discussion

CI-2009 EAc1.1:Optimize Energy Performance—Lighting Power

Square Footage for the Decorative Lighting Allowance

When you claim a lighting allowance for Decorative appearance you get 1 watt/sf. What I can't figure is what sq footage are they referring to: if the whole space it's in, the little decorative fixture nearly doubles the allowable wattage for that space; if I try to figure the area it illuminates, it hardly illuminates anything - hence decorative; if I balance wattage against sq footage, I have a lower percent improvement over ASHRAE than if I didn't claim the allowance at all. So what %@%^$@&^ area are they talking about???? If it really is the whole space than darn me for not putting a decorative fixture in every space, it would be extra wattage, but the allowance would put me wayyyy over exemplary performance! BTW COMCheck's Calc makes sense, the fixture just goes away upto 1 watt per sq ft of the space, but the LEED template just adds the 1 watt per sq ft to the allowance keeps the fixture in the usage and does the math with weird results. P.S. is there any way to add lines in the ASHRAE Compliance form?

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Thu, 08/13/2015 - 22:32

Christopher, It seems you are misunderstanding what Standard 90.1 requires. You need to read the standard more carefully. Refer to 90.1-2007 9.6.2,a. on page 62. The decorative allowance is "for spaces in which the lighting is specified to be installed in addition to the general lighting for the purposes of decorative appearance...." and "shall not exceed 1.0 w/ft2 for such spaces" So, it is the area of the space in which the fixtures are installed. This additional allowance is not added to your power allowance. It is a separate allowance that can only be used for the decorative fixtures. Also note that the decorative fixtures must be separately controlled from the general lighting by automatic controls. I'm assuming you have a copy of ASHRAE/IES 90.1-2007. If not, you can get it here: http://www.techstreet.com/ashrae/products/1536065

Thu, 08/13/2015 - 22:34

Your operative assumption is that you get an extra 1 W/sf. You don't. If you have decorative lighting in the proposed you get to add an extra allowance up to 1 W/sf in the baseline identical to the amount of wattage that was installed. So if I have 500 watts of decorative lighting in a space I add 500 watts to the baseline. So the answer is the whole space but the "extra" is identical in both. I think the ASHRAE Compliance forms are static.

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