We have parking spaces in the first floor of our building, for tenants of the project space. The square footage of the parking is not included in the project Gross Floor Area. The parking is within the LEED Project Boundary and we are pursuing the point for Heat Island Effect non roof for our covered parking. My question is: Should I include the parking area in the Space Useage Type Table? And if I do, am I correct in interpreting that it would not count as Regularly Occupied Area OR Unconditioned Area, just Gross Area? Thank you!
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Louise Schlatter
ArchitectSSOE Group
86 thumbs up
July 31, 2013 - 3:02 pm
Maggie,
It appears the project is in a multi-story building. If the project is the entire building, the first floor will consume energy (lights, ventilation, and perhaps heat), and should be included in a manner consistent with the project approach to the MPR (Minimum Program Requirements).
Further, if a project feature is being utilized to gain a credit, that feature should be consistently applied throughout the entire LEED certification process.
If you check the USGBC-distributed documents you will find:
1. Parking garages are not to contribute to gross floor area (specifically excluded in 2. Complete Permanent Building, MPR Supplemental Guidance, p.21 and p.40).
2. Parking garages, with the possible exception of loading zones, are not regularly occupied areas (the USGBC distributed IEQ Space Matrix, plus various other ASHRAE documents)
3. Parking garages are not considered as enclosed spaces and therefore do not contribute to Unconditioned Area (PIf3 Form, Table PIf3-1, Footnote 2).
4. Parking garages part of project construction and supporting building operations should be included in LEED Project Boundary (included in 3. Reasonable Site Boundary, MPR Supplemental Guidance, p.26).
You will also find parking garages that are part of LEED project may contribute:
1. Parking capacity – include in SSc4 credits
2. Shade to parking – include in SSc7.1
3. Potential light spill – include in SSc8
4. Consumption of power – include in EA credits, particularly EAp2
5. To construction activities – include in MR credits
6. Are not considered enclosed – exclude from IEQ credits