The project is designed to have about 60% of the building footprint as future tenant occupied datacenter space with the rest as support offices, shipping & handling office, corridors, restrooms, mechanical and electrical rooms. The datacenter will not be regularly occupied. The datacenter space will not have permanent or temporary workstations for the technicians. It is most similar in nature to an electrical or mechanical equipment room - technicians will be required to enter for short periods on an occasional basis for maintenance, etc. Additionally, the data center will be a sensitive area with access control (security), such that only authorized personnel may even enter the space. We would like to know if the datacenter space could be defined as a non-regularly occupied space & whether the proposed occupancy count for a datacenter space is appropriate. For LEED points concerning regularly occupied spaces: As per CIR Ruling 1/29/2008 (referred in LEED NC 2.2 credit EQ 6.2) & ASHRAE 62.1 2004, page 4 - definition of occupied space: "An enclosed space intended for human activities, excluding those spaces intended primarily for other purposes, such as storage rooms and equipment rooms, that are only occupied occasionally and for short periods of time." & As per CIR Ruling 1/29/2008 (referred in LEED NC 2.2 for credit EQ 8.1) - We consider the datacenter space as a non-regularly occupied space. We propose to exclude the datacenter space from the calculations of the following points: 1. EQ Prereq 1: Minimum IAQ Performance 2. EQ credit 1: Outdoor Air Delivery Monitoring 3. EQ credit 2: Increased Ventilation 4. EQ credit 6: Controllability of Systems, Thermal Comfort 5. EQ credit 7: Thermal Comfort, Compliance with ASHRAE 55-2004 (The data center will be designed to meet ASHRAE TC9.9 recommendations on Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments.) 6. EQ credit 8.1: Daylight & Views Is datacenter a non-regularly occupied space? And, would the exclusion for the above points, be allowed? For datacenter occupancy count: As per LEED CS Appendix, default occupancy for a datacenter space is not listed. The technicians will enter the datacenter space occasionally and for short periods of time. Typically, we anticipate 1 technician for duration of 2 hours for 1 day, biweekly. At peak we anticipate 2 technicians for the same duration. So at any given time in the year there will be no more then 2 technicians in the datacenter space. We propose to: 1. Add the peak 2 datacenter occupants to the average transient occupancy & FTE for the regularly occupied areas for purposes of SS credit 4 calculations. 2. Add 2 transient occupants to the transient occupancy & FTE for the regularly occupied areas for purposes for WE credit 2 & 3 calculations. Is the above acceptable?
The applicant is asking to exclude an area of the project, a datacenter that can be considered non-regularly occupied, from the calculations of various prerequisites and credits under LEED-CS. 1. EQ Prerequisite 1: Minimum IAQ Performance- No it cannot be excluded. 2. EQ Credit 1: Outdoor Air Delivery Monitoring- No it cannot be excluded. 3. EQ Credit 2: Increased Ventilation- No it cannot be excluded. 4. EQ Credit 6: Controllability of Systems, Thermal Comfort- Yes, non-regularly occupied spaces are not applicable to this credit. 5. EQ Credit 7: Thermal Comfort, Compliance with ASHRAE 55-2004 (The data center will be designed to meet ASHRAE TC9.9 recommendations on Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments.)- Yes, this approach is acceptable. 6. EQ Credit 8.1: Daylight & Views- Yes, non-regularly occupied spaces are not applicable to this credit. The applicant is also seeking guidance for how to account for the occupancy of the datacenter space in LEED credit calculations. Based upon Appendix 1 of the LEED-CS Reference Guide, if the total tenant occupancy is known, this must be used for all calculations, as long as the gross square footage per employee is not greater than that in the default occupancy count. If the total tenant occupancy count is not known, the Appendix 1 guidelines can be used. However, these occupancy counts are provided for typical core and shell project types. Project types and circumstances not covered in the Appendix will be considered on a case-by-case basis. For this project, the proposed methodology is acceptable.