Rating System

LEED O+M: Existing Buildings, LEED O+M: Existing Buildings

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.0, v3 - LEED 2008

Inquiry

Our building is a 56 floor, 1 million gross square foot (GSF) high rise office building in a major metropolitan city. The building has four space types: 1) retail tenant 2) lobby 3) commercial office, and 4) server room. The retail tenants are located on the ground floor and are served by dedicated HVAC systems. The commercial office spaces are located on floors 2 through 56 and are served by dedicated floor-by-floor air handlers with VAV boxes and electric reheat. The server rooms are located on floors 2 through 56 and are served by dedicated cooling systems. The server rooms combined comprise less than 1% of the total GSF of the site. Due to the amount of tenant improvement projects that have been completed since the building was built in the mid 1980s, a complete set of current mechanical and architectural drawings for the building are not available. However, the original mechanical infrastructure has remained unchanged. Given the large size of this building, the large number of tenants, and lack of complete documentation, we are proposing a sampling strategy to document that the building complies with EQ Prerequisite 1. Specific details are summarized below. Note that for the purposes of this CIR, "calculation" implies a calculation confirming ASHRAE 62.1-2004 ventilation rates was completed. Occupancy levels for each space will be based on ASHRAE 62.1 2004 guidelines. Calculation Approach: Retail: One calculation will be completed for each retail tenant space. Lobby: One calculation will be completed for the lobby area. Commercial office: Confirmation that each office space is served by a typical HVAC system will be completed through site surveys, customer interviews and review of available drawings. Once confirmed, calculations will be completed on 10% of the air handlers and/or floors to show that these floors meet EQ Prerequisite 1. If unique spaces in terms of space use or HVAC system type are discovered, separate calculations will be completed for those unique spaces. Server rooms: Excluded from the scope of this credit because they are not regularly occupied spaces, and because they comprise less than 1% of the total site GSF. Submissions: The actual minimum ventilation rate for the each AHU will be measured and compared with the outdoor ventilation rates calculated above. In addition, documents will be submitted (i) ensuring that the building exhaust systems are working as designed, and (ii) shall include the results of a quarterly inspection of building OA & exhaust systems to confirm they are working as designed. Will this proposed strategy meet the requirements and intent of the EQ Prerequisite 1? If not, please clarify how this proposal should be revised.