Our project is a centralized beverage product distribution center consisting of an office area and an attached warehouse for storing carbonated beverages. The manufacturer has specified that product carbonation might be compromised if the space temperature were to rise above 90 deg. F. The facility is located in the Coachella Valley, California. While the area used to have a semi-desert climate, widespread agricultural irrigation has caused the humidity to increase in the area to the point that evaporative cooling is no longer an option. Since product quality is critical, the only way to maintain the maximum allowable temperature is to install a refrigeration system consisting of rooftop units. The unit controls will be locked out to provide cooling only to maintain a maximum of 90 degrees in the space; they are not designed (by virtue of their cooling capacity) to maintain human comfort temperatures in the space. The purpose of this Credit Interpretation Request is to clarify whether the power required to cool the warehouse to 90 degrees may be exempted from the process load simulation for EA Prerequisite 2 and Credit 1. The LEED NC Reference Guide states that, "Appendix G of [ASHRAE] Standard 90.1-2004 requires that the energy analysis done for the Building Performance Rating Method include ALL of the energy costs within and associated with the building project." However, the ASHRAE standard specifically refers to equipment within the conditioned space for human comfort. The ASHRAE Standard 90 User\'s Manual clarifies the standard intent in Section 5.3: "The standard does not apply to equipment and portions of building systems that use energy primarily to provide for industrial, manufacturing or commercial processes. For example, the Standard does not apply to refrigerated warehouses that are cooled to maintain the quality of the goods stored in the warehouse." In addition, the California Energy Code exempts spaces that are maintained above 90 degrees or below 55 degrees since they are outside of the comfort range. No standards, and therefore no baseline case for modeling refrigerated warehouses, currently exist. We have two questions: 1) Have we interpreted correctly that according to ASHRAE standard 90.1-2004, the energy related to the cooling system of the warehouse is exempt from the LEED EA Credit 1 simulation? If not, what baseline can we use? Please clarify. 2) If we exclude the energy from EA Credit 1, do we treat the other EA credits such as EA Credit 6 similarly?
The applicant wants to exclude air-handlers that are used only to maintain 90F set point. It appears from the narrative that the use of air-handlers to maintain the 90F set point is a process requirement. While these air-handlers are exempt from ASHRAE 90.1-2004 and California Title 24, they have to be accounted for in the energy calculations for LEED. The energy consumed by these air-handlers must be maintained to be the same in both the proposed and the baseline models. These air-handlers must be accounted for in any calculations under EA credit 4 and EA credit 6.