Hi Marcus,
For previous warehouse CS projects with little to no installed mechanical and electrical systems (typically freeze protection, a few ventilation fans, and exterior lighting) we have assumed some basic office nodes with code values and relied on lease agreements and Owner commitment letters with requirements for future tenants.
However, reviewers are indicating that for v4, we should model only what is installed in the building unless there is an identified tenant with an executed lease agreement.
Since that is not the nature of a speculative cold, dark shell project, we are struggling with some feasibility studies on projects that would like to find a way to get certification. So far we haven't been able to get any guidance on what assumptions to make in the absence of an executed lease agreement. It seems like code assumptions would still be viable with or without an executed lease. Do you have any advice on how to approach the modeling, absent an actual tenant?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
February 28, 2017 - 2:57 pm
This seems to contradict the v4 Reference Guide (RG) which still indicates that you can use a lease agreement to generate savings.
In my opinion it makes no sense to model a building that is completely unoccupied and do a comparison. All energy use associated with the building must be modeled and 90.1 does not even apply to unoccupied buildings. There are default occupancy values in Appendix 2 to the RG that you are supposed to use. So if you have occupancy you need lights, space conditioning , etc. As far as I can tell the procedure for modeling a CS project remains the same in v4, so I am not sure why the reviewer would indicate differently.