Lighting Power Densities for the baseline case

The note refers only to the Building Area Method (BAM). Basically it says that if you have a specific building type use that instead of the more general type. For example, if I am building a sports arena on a university campus then I use the sports arena Building Area Type, not the schools/university Type. You could select individual zones in your building and apply the BAM values to those zones. Often this will not be to your advantage however. Typically the Space-by-Space (S-by-S) method will provide for a higher baseline, so more savings. For example, the gym is 1.1 W/sf in BAM and 1.4W/sf in S-by-S. The classrooms would be 1.2 W/sf in BAM and 1.4 W/sf in S-by-S. In our expereince the S-by-S method always yields more savings but it certainly does require more effort.

I think you should use the S-by-S method to maximize accuracy and savings. We almost never use the BAM in our modeling. The difference is that the S-by-S method will be far more detailed since you will be entering different values for corridors, stairs, restrooms, storage rooms, mechanical rooms, lobbies, cafeteria, etc.