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Office occupancy - LEED CS 2009

Dear All, a question for a core and shell project. The LEED reference guide Appendix 1 states : “Core and shell projects that do not have the final occupancy counts must utilize the default occupancy counts provided in this appendix. Projects that know the tenant occupancy must use the actual occupancy counts, as long as the gross square foot per employee is not greater than that in the default occupancy count table”. Moreover, in the template “PI Form 3 Occupant and usage data”, 3 options are proposed : “Actual Occupancy: The actual building occupancy for the LEED building is available. Default Occupancy: The actual building occupancy for the LEED building is NOT available. The project team must use the default occupancy counts. Estimated Occupancy: The actual building occupancy is unknown AND the default occupancy counts do not address the LEED building type. The project team will base the occupancy on an alternative methodology.” Our project is speculative, therefore we do not know the occupancy but there is an “design occupancy” used to size all HVAC components. Therefore, I consider that the project falls under “the estimated occupancy option”, is that right ? Thanks, Best

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Tue, 02/12/2013 - 14:45

Dear all, Yesterday, GBCI answered : "Appendix 1 indicates a default occupancy for commercial office space that should be used unless you know that the use of the space will not fall into this category. If that is the case, please include the probable occupancy type and the basis for estimating it's occupancy." We understand that we therefore must use default occupancy provided in appendix 1 which seems to be not relevant. If someone can help on this issue... Best

Tue, 02/19/2013 - 17:54

In your case, I would the Estimated Occupancy Option, and explain the methodology you used to arrive to those occupancy numbers. If your methodology makes sense and is well explained, most probably it will be accepted by the reviewers. Hope it helps

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