Rating System

LEED ID+C: Commercial Interiors

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.0

Inquiry

Our project is a 23,865 square foot winery in Oregon with 18,774 square feet in process areas. Within the process area there is a Long-term Bottled Wine Aging Cellar (634 sq. ft.) that could be occupied for up to 10 minutes/day 5 days a week and a Cellar Annex (408 sq. ft.) that could be occupied for 10-30 minutes once a week. There are air handling units in these areas where the use of MERV 13 filtration does not make sense. First, they are not regularly occupied spaces, as described above and second, from an engineering standpoint, it does not make sense to use MERV 13 filtration. The (2) 1 ton to 1.5 ton air handlers each support a single room that requires special conditions for the wine making process. Most of the year the rooms are used only for storage with only the minimum amount of outside air introduced into the space with the rest being recirculated. Upgrading to bigger air handling units would require additional power to run the larger units. The larger units would cycle on and off continuously and cause wear and tear on the unit. According to the designing mechanical engineer, installing MERV 13 filtration in the smaller specified units would burn them out as they cannot support the pressure drop of a MERV 13 filter. Can we exclude these process areas in the winery from the EQc3.1 credit requirement that all filtration media must be replaced prior to occupancy with MERV 13 filtration?