CI energy modeling

Ryan Wang

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

September 4, 2025

Hi all，

I am doing an LEED V4.1 CI: commercail interior project. It is a 30 floor building with centralized chiller system, and our working scope is 16-19 floor. By reading the reference guide, i have modeled water side HVAC as propose design, however it could be too large for our working scope, since it supposed to serve this whole building.

My question is, 1. is it correct to model the water side HVAC as district plant? 2. i can proportionately lower the chiller's cooling capacity (say 14% of its total capcaity, because my working scope is 14% of the total conditioned space); 3. or i should model the whole water side HVAC as deisgn.

Thanks!!

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Marcus Sheffer

LEED Fellow

7group / Energy Opportunities

LEEDuser Expert

4454 thumbs up

Fri, 09/05/2025 - 21:07

The Reference Guide provides guidance on the options available for modeling this situation. See Minimum Energy Performance, Further Explanation, Contribution of Base Building HVAC and Service Water-Heating Systems and use either Method 1 or 2. Method 1 is for projects where the spaces outside the CI scope are similar types, Method 2 is for projects where there are other dissimilar spaces in the building. What you describe is Method 1.