Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.2

Inquiry

(This CIR is in response to the earlier CIR that was issued by USGBC regarding the chiller plant on 8-23-04. We request that the CIR be reevaluated based on the question below. Note that we also have a chart that explains the issue further.) The plant in the Northwest building will be sized for the cooling load of the new building and will be equipped with high efficiency electric chillers (approximately 5,000 tons) that do not contain CFC\'s. The chilled water distribution system will be cross connected with the campus-wide system that is fed from an existing plant. The plants will be operated in parallel to serve the campus peak load, which will be approximately 15,000 tons when the Northwest plant comes on line in 2007. The attached figure demonstrates that the site chilled water requirement will be met with the combined plants\' CFC-free chiller capacity; in other words, equipment capacity of more than 100% of the overall plant load is CFC-free. The design intent is to operate the older, less efficient remaining CFC based chiller in a lag or standby position. This strategy will reduce or eliminate the use of CFC based cooling in the other campus buildings served by the original plant. Does the Northwest building\'s project meet Prerequisite EA-3?