In our company, we have introduced LEED as mandatory for all new construction projects. but unfortunately LEED is not really made for Factories, where you have quite a high process loads compared building energy loads, due to this we have created our own Green Factory standard (SFR) for all our processes and its services.
Now I have a question, related to the energy simulation and its process loads.
In ver 2009 and below, we could use default process load of 25% when we were comparing against baseline. This was done without any issues in all our LEED certifications and also accepted by GBCI auditors.
In the new ver 4, this sentence has been removed and I would like to understand how this will be assessed, according to the new version.
Do we need to implement the total process load energy into the energy simulation or can we still use the default process energy load ?
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Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
October 7, 2014 - 5:06 pm
Unfortunately this perception seems to persist as the credit language is confusing. There has never been a 25% default process load. You have always been required to model all of the energy use in all facilities. If your previous reviews used a 25% default and it was not challenged by the reviewers it was a mistake and should not have been allowed.
The reason the language was removed from v4 was to end the confusion it created. Under v4 and in all previous version of LEED/ASHARE 90.1 you are required to model all process loads as accurately as you can. Table G3.1-1 and the LEED credit language (model all of the energy use within and associated with the project) requires you to do so.
Scott Bowman
LEED FellowIntegrated Design + Energy Advisors, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
519 thumbs up
October 8, 2014 - 12:57 pm
Marcus, I am getting involved in a project that has a significant amount of process load associated with refrigeration equipment (coolers and freezers), and the design team has some pretty good ideas on how to reduce the energy use of these systems. So, they are going to want to show a difference between the baseline and design models.
How would you suggest we document/determine an appropriate baseline? We would like to deal with this early in the project instead of review, and intend to have a conference call, but would appreciate any advice you might have.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
October 9, 2014 - 9:26 am
First places I would check are LEED Retail and ASHRAE 90.1-2013. There are some baseline criteria established in both for commercial refrigeration.
The LEED Retail criteria is already an acceptable baseline. Anything else as a baseline would require some additional justification that it is standard industry practice in that location. If there are utility rebates in your area you can sometimes use their baseline as a justification. Basically you just need to convince the reviewer that you have a reasonable baseline.
Stefanie Young
Director, Technical SolutionsUSGBC
5 thumbs up
May 20, 2015 - 5:45 pm
Thanks to the help of the LEED User Group: Industrial Facilities and the 900+ manufacturing projects that have been successful with the LEED certification process to date, USGBC has been able to work very closely with this sector and owners to make LEED more applicable to their building design and operational practices. Some examples include the Alternative Compliance Paths that address energy modeling with regulated and unregulated loads, benchmarking for unique space types, and renewable energy systems specific to industrial facilities. See LEED Interpretations ID#10291, #10220, and #10397 respectively in the LEED Addenda Database for additional details. http://www.usgbc.org/leed-interpretations