Tenant-owned commercial refrigeration units

Right, tenant equipment in leased space can arguably be excluded from consideration as "base building" equipment for this credit in LEED-CS.

Hello,

I have a similar question here, we are working on a warehouse project where all the space will be in the tenant´s scope, the space will have the tenant´s preferred HVAC system according to his use and necessities. Can we still apply for this credit by the option 1 - No refrigerant use considering that the base building doesn´t contemplate an HVAC system?

The case is slightly different if you simply aren't installing HVAC equipment as part of your project scope. Check out the Core And Shell Appendix 4 at the back of the Reference Guide, which states that for this credit you'll need to document that any future systems will definitely meet credit requirements. Unfortunately, you can only document this with certainty if you have it written into a legally binding sales or lease agreement with a future tenant--it's not enough to just include it in the Tenant Guidelines and hope for the best.

What is the definition of base building systems? In a situation with a warehouse with a cold storage component, would the refrigeration for the coolers be considered as base building, or as a process refrigeration system and excluded from the credit requirements? There is certainly separate HVAC cooling which will be included in the calculations. This would be a LEED-NC project with the owner of the building fitting out the cold storage rather than tenant equipment in a leased space.

Hi Erik,
Base building equipment includes all equipment permanently installed and containing more than 0.5 pounds of refrigerant. Only small appliances and portable/temporary equipment is exempted, so even though the cold storage system would be process energy, it should still be included here. This does make credit achievement challenging, but it's also a good opportunity for some meaningful impact. I would recommend maximizing the equipment lifespan you can use in the calculations through service contracts to help reduce the refrigerant impact of the cold storage systems if the selection is otherwise limited.

to be honest, I found out thanks to my experience that commercial refrigeration is much profitable that a simple refrigerators

Hey friend our store recently updated the equipment including all commercial freezers and all the equipment was included in the calculations as far as I know. But in any case for more accurate information you need to contact the supplier directly and with them to solve all the questions about this problem.