[Equest-users] Commercial Building Tax Deduction

[Nick Caton]

Fast thoughts:

 

Important nuance alert:  The good news is, a 50% reduction in current
energy use might actually be realistic since you have an uninsulated
roof to start...  However you need to demonstrate a 50% reduction in
energy use with respect to a 90.1-2001 baseline, and that would hinge on
whether your existing HVAC/lighting/walls/floors/windows are
significantly efficient or not.  It's possible.

 

Whether a $1.80*2,750 = $4,950 (at most) tax deduction (not credit) is
worth the time involved is perhaps a more pertinent question to explore
first...

 

The 16.67% reduction target, which would require to hold everything else
constant (lighting/HVAC) and isolate the envelope differences seems less
likely to me... I've only once explored various roof U-values for a
small footprint like that, and the impact was negligible.

 

Disclaimer:  99% of my knowledge/experience with the CBTD is using the
lighting-only approach. My hunches here are based more on my general
modeling experience - but  also primarily in climate zone 4 ;).

 

~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 Justin
Tiedemann
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 4:17 PM
To: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: [Equest-users] Commercial Building Tax Deduction

 

Hi All,

The roof in our 2,750 ft2 office is leaking.  Since it's rainy season
here in climate zone 4, we're trying to get it repaired quickly.  We've
decided to add R19 poly-iso nail base to the un-insulated roof.  There
is an option to install R26 instead.

I just started digging into the commercial building tax deduction
(section 1331 of HR6) to see if R26 will qualify for the $0.60 or even
the $1.80/ft2 deductions.  I've created a model of the existing building
in eQuest 3.64.  Given my modeling experience, there is not enough time
to build a ASHRAE 90.1 - 2001 compliant model in version 3.63 to compare
the energy savings of R26 v. the baseline R15.  Is there an outside
chance that R26, being > 50% better, would result in a 50% reduction in
energy use?  Is there a chance it would result in a 16 2/3 reduction?  I
realize these may be tricky questions, any thoughts are appreciated;
disclaimers are ok too.  

Thanks,
Justin 


Justin Tiedemann, LEED AP BD+C

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