Hi,
We have a project where only two floors of a whole building (>5 floors) will be certified under commercial interiors.
The system is DOAS, radiative heating and cooling, and heat pumps.
We know what the size and efficiency of these equipment (SFP for DOAS fans and COP for the heat pump) are, however if one is to only model the two floors using the same efficiencies then the part-load efficiencies will be low since the demand for the two floors is much lower compared to the whole building and this might not reflect the real performance.
Generating the baseline building model will, on the other hand, size the equipment precisely for the two floors making it unfair to the proposed building model.
How should one approach this issue?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5925 thumbs up
February 19, 2025 - 10:02 am
There are two methods to account for this issue. They are covered thoroughly in the LEED v4.0 Reference Guide. Unfortunately it does not appear to be covered in the v4.1 guide.
Samer Hassanie
Energy Consultant1 thumbs up
February 19, 2025 - 10:13 am
Thank you Marcus, I checked the LEED v4.0 Reference Guide and it is Option 1 that we're following.
However, there is no mention of how the equipment efficiencies should be handled.
Please advise.
Samer Hassanie
Energy Consultant1 thumbs up
March 4, 2025 - 9:47 am
Just a follow up question:
Is it acceptable to scale down the capacity of the proposed equipment based on assessed area/served area?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5925 thumbs up
March 4, 2025 - 10:20 am
The proposed equipment efficiency are modeled as designed or included in the base building systems. The baseline is according to the applicable Table G3.5X in 90.1-2016.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5925 thumbs up
March 4, 2025 - 10:23 am
Yes Method 1 indicates that are supposed to scale down the system capacities.