Dear All, I've been reading through the details of modeling a district heating / cooling plant, and it seems rather complicated! Two options, many methods.. The project is a new build school on a campus. The campus plant initially had 1 building with chillers & boilers installed (1 year ago only), and now with the proposed new building, additional chillers & boilers will be installed, and so the campus plant will then serve both buildings (and probably more buildings in the future). It seems that I will have to model district cooling & heating as per LEED requirements. 1) Which option is better to use in my case: Option 1 (streamlined) or Option 2 (full accounting)? 2) Under option 1, I read in the additional guidance that the energy source is modeled as purchased energy. What is meant by "purchased energy"? Will I be able to at least input the upstream district plant equipment efficiencies (we are proposing high efficiency heating boiler and high COP chillers)? 3) What would actually differ if I didn't model the whole district plant and assumed we have normal dedicated chiller / boiler to the building? Since the purpose of a district plant is to reduce initial & operating costs, will the USGBC accept the "more conservative approach" (higher energy consumption for the Proposed) of a dedicated plant to the proposed building? Thanks!
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If you want to capture any savings related to the central plant you will need to use option 2. Option 1 treats the incoming hot and chilled water as if it were a utility serving the building only. Only the building systems are modeled under option 1 so you do not capture the upstream plant efficiencies.
The difference would be primarily related to the load on the plant.
Thanks Marcus,
So if I am aiming to get points under EAc1, and I use Option 1, then I can only do so by mainly focusing on saving energy related to lighting, since the HVAC equipments aren't modeled under this option. Am I right?
Does this mean that if a LEED NC project would like to gain 3-4 points (16-20% improvement) under EA Credit 1, the only choice is to go with Option 2?
Thanks!
You could also claim HVAC savings related to fans and pumps inside the building under option 1.
There is a point floor (minimum) for option 2 of 6 points and a point ceiling (maximum) for option 1 of 10 points. See page 10 of the DES. For 3 or 4 points you could only use option 1.
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