[Equest-users] LEED Paperwork - Defaults Overridden

[Nick Caton]

I just finished a LEED review comment/response with a reviewer where I entered zeroes - there was no comment to this entry.  It's hard to judge, but I would place this reviewer as someone higher-ranking than "eQuest novice" but neither is he/she a seasoned veteran (I had to resist the urge to correct the manner in which certain reports were used to perform the review... I have to remind myself that's not my job!).

 

Whether this input is even considered is ultimately up to the individual reviewer as everyone is saying, so I also suggest using just zeroes on your first submittal, rather than potentially wasting time coming up with a guess.

 

To my knowledge, there is simply no reasonably quick process to accurately determine the number of red and blue input fields used in a model.

 

Here's a stab in the dark though:

 

Open your project's .inp file in Microsoft Word 2007.  Ctrl+f and input the text ".." without quotes, then press the "Find in  à Main document" button.  It will return the number of instances your .inp contains ".."  Assume that each unique BDL component is a "default override" and feed the reviewer that number explaining how you got it, if they really want to see something other than zero.  

 

~Nick

 

 

 

NICK CATON, E.I.T.

PROJECT ENGINEER

Smith & Boucher Engineers

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From: equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org [mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Bob Fassbender
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 2:24 PM
To: Dakota Kelley
Cc: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] LEED Paperwork - Defaults Overridden

 

I can confirm this as well (that you should just ballpark the number). Try to consider this from a LEED reviewer's point of view tho; they are really looking to see if you changed any value abnormally. I think the original intent was "Major defaults overridden". So, for instance, if you changed default load methodologies, or something that most users do not change, that is what they want to know about. However, if many people are putting hundreds of defaults overridden, this may become what the LEED reviewer expects to see anyway.

 

I have to say the reviewers have gotten pretty savvy over the last few years and most of them probably see that you are using eQUEST, and then they understand (because eQUEST has so many defaults, by it's nature of being a fast simulation tool). Remember that some reviewers are more familiar with certain software, so if they ask, it's likely that they aren't too familiar with eQUEST, and you need to explain that eQUEST has defaults for nearly every value (though in my experience, eQUEST is the most well-known by LEED reviewers).

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 1:55 PM, Dakota Kelley <dakotak at teliospc.com> wrote:

Yes, I'd echo Bill's advice here. Estimate a reasonable number and run with it - like the Target Finder score, this information is used as a soft check for the model's "reasonableness", but it also depends on the modeling software. I've had one question before about why so many defaults were overridden, and my response was basically "you can't incorporate Appx G or the proposed design in eQUEST without overriding many, many defaults" (the project was accepted).

 

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From: Bishop, Bill [mailto:wbishop at pathfinder-ea.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 8:48 AM
To: M. Shields; equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] LEED Paperwork - Defaults Overridden

 

Michael,

My suggestion - don't waste time on "defaults overridden". You can't leave it blank - the online template won't let you. For my first submission, I put "1776" and "2008" (years - I was feeling patriotic), but the reviewer asked why I changed so many defaults. So I lowered it closer to zero. Try putting numbers less than 20 and change them if your reviewer asks about it.

Regards,

Bill

 

William Bishop, PE, BEMP, LEED® AP | Pathfinder Engineers & Architects LLP

Mechanical Engineer

 

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From: equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org [mailto:equest-users-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of M. Shields
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 9:31 AM
To: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: [Equest-users] LEED Paperwork - Defaults Overridden

 

Good Morning All,

 

I know this has come up in the past and I have seen several responses from going through and counting all of the schedules to just estimating.  Regardless of how you have determined this value has anyone then included a description of how this was done in their narrative, or has anyone ever gotten any questions from their reviewer about how the number was tabulated?  Also has anyone ever left it blank as an unquantifiable number?  I think I could spend days trying to count every default of my model and still be off by hundreds.

 

Thanks for any feedback,

 

____________________________
Michael Shields

Phone: 803-493-4507

Fax: 803-548-2511

 


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