We are working on roughly 2 million SF of retail and office space spread over 30 buildings. This development is pursuing LEED CS in Las Vegas, NV. The project team is seeking information on modeling methodology for multiple buildings being certified under one submittal for Energy and Atmosphere Credit 1, Option 1. The LEED Application Guide for Multiple Buildings and On-Campus Building Projects states the following for EAc1: "To receive a single rating for a group of buildings, use a weighted average for the group of buildings based on their conditioned square footage, or aggregate the data into one PRM calculation, so that the performance in achieved by buildings of varying sizes within a certifying group." We are wondering if creating representative models for buildings with similar characteristics would be an acceptable approach. Each representative model would demonstrate the savings that we could anticipate for buildings with the same characteristics. A weighted average would then be taken of the results and the overall energy cost savings for the development would be calculated. We would carefully determine the number of representative models in order to truly make an accurate portrayal of each building on site. The number of representative models would be dependent on the similarities in building layout, size, construction, use, orientation, adjacencies, HVAC, lighting, and operation. For instance, one representative model would demonstrate the energy cost for all buildings on site with the same construction, use, orientation, adjacency, HVAC, lighting and operation. The baseline cases would adhere to ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2004, as per LEED requirements. Please let us know if the proposed representative modeling methodology is acceptable.
For a project comprising of 30 buildings with roughly 2 million sf of retail and office space, the applicant is enquiring, whether it is acceptable to model representative buildings in cases where a number of buildings have similar characteristics such as construction, orientation, adjacency, HVAC, lighting and operation. The modeling methodology as described by the applicant, however, is not acceptable. The applicant has stated as an example, that one building model would represent the number of buildings having similar above mentioned characteristics. A representative building may only be used if the buildings with similar characteristics outlined above also have identical footprints. In this case, the energy cost of one representative building may be multiplied by the number of identical buildings to get the total energy cost. If this is not the case then each building must be modeled separately.Update April 15, 2011: Please note that all 2009 projects in multiple building situations must follow the 2010 Application Guide for Multiple Buildings and On-Campus Building Projects, located here: https://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=7987. 2009 project teams should check this document for up to date guidance on all multiple building issues. Applicable Internationally.