Re: Ashrae 55 for Workout Room/Gym

Tristan, I actually met with one of the GBCI reviewers last week at Greenbuild and asked him how he (and the GBCI) view ASHRAE 55 with regards to gyms and similar type spaces (e.g. kitchens) that fall outside the metabolic rate and clothing ranges listed for using the graphical method and computer model method. In spaces like these, the GBCI understands that occupant comfort is not necessarily the driving factor for design and ASHRAE 55 does not give us a method of compliance, since it was generally written for office spaces. No matter what a designer does in a gymnasium, occupants working out will not be able to achieve thermal comfort according to ASHRAE 55. However, the GBCI informed me that as long as we show them that we put some thought process into thermal comfort in these spaces then they will accept that. The design in these spaces will need to address air speed, temperature, etc. One example we discussed was a gymnasium with spectator seating. Obviously if you increase the air speed too much in the gym, the sporting participants would be more comfortable, but the spectators would then be uncomfortable. The same would hold true for air temperature, if we lower the air temperature to make the sporting participants more comportable, the spectators would most likely be uncomfortable. As long as we make good design decisions in these spaces and document it including a narrative about the design intent, then we should be covered. In another example we discussed, we have a 600 SF gym which is part of a 30,000 SF office TI. For this project we added space fans in the small gymspace in addition to making good decision decisions for the air speed and temperature from the house system and that would show that we thought about occupant comfort in this space and would therefore comply. One important note from the reviewer was that providing a narrative and explaining the background and design intent was the best method of communicating with them our intent. This is the direction I was given at the Greenbuild from a GBCI reviewer. I am submitting my project this week so I won't know for sure what the final outcome is from the actual review, but I feel better knowing I have some direction and can at least reference my discussion with the GBCI Reviewer as a reason for pursuing the credit using this path.