Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.2

Inquiry

Our proposed design includes high efficiency gas-fired micro-turbines combined with a double effect absorption chiller/heater to provide on-site power, heat and cooling. UTC Power, A United Technologies Company offers such a system called Integrated Power & Comfort System. The system utilizes natural gas fired high efficiency micro-turbine electricity generators and recovers enough exhaust heat directly to provide the energy required to operate a 2-stage absorption chiller with a COP=1.3. This system does not require an intermediate heat exchanger to create hot water energy to operate the single stage absorber as other systems and therefore more of the site-recovered energy is actually used for cooling or heating. In essence, our proposed system generates electricity on-site and we are getting free cooling and heating as a by-product. The question we need to answer is, would this system contribute to credits under EA Credit 1 - Optimize Energy Performance as well as EA Credit 2 Renewable Energy because the Referenced Standard - ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-1999 (on page 135 of the LEED 2.0 Reference Guide) clearly states that \'On-site renewable or site-recovered energy that might be used to capture EA Credit 2 is handled as a special case in the modeling process. If either renewable or recovered energy is produced at the site, the ECB Method considers it free energy and it is not included in the Design Energy Cost." Does this mean that site recovered energy can be used to capture EA Credit 2 and can the source be located outside the LEED designated boundary?