Target Finder outside the US - Project in Europe

Yes that is correct.

I am not sure it is in writing anywhere. Not everything is written down as an exception. Using Target FInder just makes no sense since it is a data base of US-based projects and it clearly not applicable outside the US. Did you read the European Alternative Compliance Paths? Did you check the LEED Interpretations? https://www.usgbc.org/resources/leed-v4-bdc-alternative-compliance-paths... I am also a LEED Technical Reviewer and can tell you that we do not look for a Target Finder score for projects outside the US. 

Hi Marcus,

I went through the European Alternative Compliance Path document linked above, there isn't much useful information regarding this question. It says that "Certain European standards are accepted to replace requirements of the ASHRAE 90.1-2010 Mandatory Provisions.", but there isn't really such a standard listed, as it was raised in this topic, too:

https://leeduser.buildinggreen.com/forum/usgbc-approved-equivalent-stand...

I couldn't find any info on this in the LEED Interpretations database, here: https://www.usgbc.org/addenda

I'm speculating if the following would that be an acceptable approach to establish a similar target EUI: we take the relevant local legislation in the project's country (Hungary) and take the permitted E_p  [kWh/m²a] - see below for explanation - and work our way from there? I know it's not compliant with ASHRAE 90.1, but the idea behind finding a target metric would be to measure ourselves against through the whole process.

Brief explanation

E_p is the total primary energy consumption per heated floor area, determined by the buildings A/V ratio (A being the area of the thermal envelope, V being the conditioned space's volume enclosed by it), based on it there is an upper threshold that no new construction can exceed. It consists of the following factors:

E_p = E_heating + E_cooling + E_DHW + E_vent. + E_lighting + E_sus*

E_p = total primary energy consumption per heated floor area (the wording is "heated" in my language, which could be referred to conditioned according to ASHRAE 90.1 terminology)

E_heating = primary energy demand for the heating system

E_cooling = primary energy demand for the cooling system

E_DHW = primary energy demand for domestic hot water

E_vent = primary energy demand for the ventilation system

E_lighting = primary energy demand for the lighting systems

E_sus = generated renewable energy (normally PV)

* the generated energy is permitted to be substracted, reducing E_p

Each factor has many more terms, a total explanation goes way beyond the scope of this forum post (for example E_heating is described by Eq. (VI.1.a) in the linked legislation above).

As the Target Finder requires us to establish an EUI [kWh/m2a], my understanding is that we could work with these numbers, as the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) recommends working with source EUI (same, or very similar to the E_p metric above):

https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/benchmark/understand_metrics/source...

Normally E_p is calculated for every project anyway. We also have an energy certificate system based on E_p at the moment (which is different to many European countries - that we do not deal with carbon for instance, and is expected to change soon), with a scale ranging from AA++ (best) to JJ (worst), BB being 100% of the permitted E_p (AA++ being 40%) - column B in the last table of this governmental decree describes this in full.

Would you think that taking 100% (or a reasonable reduction) of the permittable E_p above could be a reasonable substitute for the Target Finder metric? Or I'm just overthinking and we should just omit this from the submission, as you wouldn't look for this anyway.:)

I hope I was clear enough, I would be interested in your take!

I want to make sure we are clear about the uses of Target Finder. What is required for US projects is to generate a Target Finder score based on your final energy modeling results. This is used as a reality check on those results since they are based on a database of actual building energy use rather than a theoritical prediction. You can also use Taget Finder to help US projects establish their energy performance goal. Those are two different things. 

I heartily applaud your efforts to develop a target EUI and design toward it. We will usually use Target Finder (on US projects) to help us establish a project performance goal as well as to use as a reality check on our final modleing results. For most of our projects we do not care so much about the comparison to a code compliant baseline, we try to design the project in a way that it demonstrates its potential to reach our targeted consumption level. 

What you are describing seems to be a way to establish a project performance goal within the system in place for the project. It sounds like a good way to do so. This target is still required of all projects. What is not required is to report your Target Finder results for the project as designed based on yor final model. Hopefully I am being clear!

Thank you, Marcus! Your clarification made it clear!