[Equest-users] backup heating - LEED

Nick Caton ncaton at smithboucher.com
Wed Dec 22 10:07:45 PST 2010


Hi Ana,

 

If the primary heating source (heatpumps) is of sufficient capacity to
handle the peak heating loads, I suspect they will be capable of
providing the heating for most of the heating season... but I didn't do
your mechanical design and am unsure of the details.

 

Look up and determine for yourself:  When will the backup plant heating
be required and used under normal operation?  Do the heatpumps lock out
when the OA drops below a certain temperature or under other conditions?
If so, are such conditions present in your model/weather file and to
what extent?  

 

If the backup plant heating is only there redundantly (in case of
equipment failure), then there's no question:  you needn't include it in
your model to begin with and the baseline should be electric.

 

The fine print below TG3.1.1A says you should select between Fossil Fuel
and Electric, when both are used, based on "the predominant condition."
That term isn't fleshed out anywhere I'm aware of, so if push came to
shove you might defend your choice to use electric by comparing the
number of hours in the heating season wherein the conditions you
determined above are satisfied against those where they are not.  

 

Those are my thoughts anyway, hope that helps!

 

~Nick

 

 

 

 

NICK CATON, E.I.T.

PROJECT ENGINEER

Smith & Boucher Engineers

25501 west valley parkway

olathe ks 66061

direct 913 344.0036

fax 913 345.0617

www.smithboucher.com 

 

From: equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Ana N.
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 8:40 AM
To: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: [Equest-users] backup heating - LEED

 

Dear all,
 
Does anyone know how LEED treats backup heating?
 
I have a project with a district plant being used as a back up. The
proposed design uses heat pumps sized to meet peak heating load. My
first thought was to select the baseline system based on fossil fuel
heating since the district plant uses fossil fuel. If I do so, I will
have to select fossil fuel as primary heating source when I actually
have zero fossil fuel consumption in my proposed case, which does not
make much sense." Required treatment of district thermal energy in
LEED-NC version 2.2 and LEED for Schools" does not provide any specific
guidance when district plant is used as a back up heating source. 
 
However "CHP Calculation Methodology for LEED-NC v2.0/v2.1 EA Credit 1
"states that Budget Building heating and cooling plant utilizes the
backup energy source(s) of the Proposed Design.
Although I do not have CHP in my project, this led me think I should use
fossil fuel as a heating type to select the baseline system type.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.



Ana

 

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