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Some common misconceptions
This credit can be fairly difficult to understand at a glance. So let’s start by getting some common misconceptions out of the way.
One common misconception is that this credit specifies or prohibits a certain refrigerant type. This is true of the prerequisite, (EAp3), however for this credit, there are both HCFCsHydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are refrigerants that cause significantly less depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer than chlorofluorocarbons. (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) and HFCs (hydrofluorocarbonsHydrofluorocarbons (...
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10 Comments
Kitchen Equipment?
My understanding is that only Walk-in Coolers and Freezers would be considered "base building" refrigeration equipment, and not "kitchen equipment" such as ice machines, display cases, etc.
Can anyone please confirm this? Thank you in advance!
That was my understanding, but my review came back saying I needed to include it and resubmit.
Hi Drew,
The credit language offers this guidance "Small HVAC units (defined as containing less than 0.5 lbs of refrigerant), and other equipment such as standard refrigerators, small water coolers, and any other cooling equipmentThe equipment used for cooling room air in a building for human comfort. that contains less than 0.5 lbs of refrigerant, are not considered part of the “base building” system and are not subject to the requirements of this credit."
So, I imagine that if any of your other equipment contains more then 0.5 lbs it would need to be included. Perhaps this was the case with your equipment as well Veronica?
Please also note the equipment must be permanently installed in the building
Yes, all the kitchen equipment on my project contains over 0.5 lbs and had to be included in the calculation. It had very little impact on the total calculation, but it was quite an ordeal to get the information from some manufacturers.
Thanks to everyone for the replies, and I think most, if not all our Kitchen Equipment with refrigerants will qualify as "portable" and *not* "permanently installed in the building". And therefore that equipment is not required to be included in the calculation.
Split System AC unit refrigerant charge
I am sure that others have run into this situation before, so I hope there is a GBCI accepted solution. Is there a way to find refrigerant charge through calculation or in a table, in pounds, when it is not a catalog listing that the manufacturer holds? We have 3 sizes of small split system units (not flooded coil thankfully). The standard verbiage is "pre-charged for 15' of line", however all the way up to the manufacturer's technical engineering department, no one can give us a figure of what that is. Table 2 (page 310) in the LEED reference guide seems like it is only a shorthand version of the calculation in order to simplify equipment selection. Our chillers and large Split-system DX units have both been clearly listed and therefore easy to attain, however we need this final piece of the puzzle to put this credit to rest. Thank you for your input.
Hi Kris
Refrigerant charge is literally how much of refrigerant would you need to refill back into the system over time of use. This is something all AC manufacturers have to provide to the customer as a need for operation. Do you think you can find out the total lbs of refriigerant they expect it to be refilling for each unit, then calculate the lbs/ton yourself? The lbs/ton = lbs they expect to be refilling/ size of the AC unit. We got this information for our AC units. What manufacturer is this?
Evaporatively Cooled Building
We have a building that uses indirect/direct evaporative coolers in lieu of nearly 60 tons of packaged DX systems. We have one 15 ton DX unit and a few 2 ton split systems for electrical rooms. The one packaged DX unit may be able to guarantee 0.5% leakage and longer life (25 years) and get us close to this credit. However, if we take out the evaporative coolers and add higher efficiency packaged DX units this would help offset the inefficient split systems. It seems counter to the intent that we need to add refrigerant to the project to reach this credit. Hence having only a 2 ton split system on a building that has an equivalent of 60 tons of evaporatively cooled and we lose this credit?
Hi Greg
I believe the evaporative coolers don't have refrigerants? The credit accounts for only the equipment using refrigerants like the 15 ton DX unit and the 2 ton split systems. You might have calculated the combined effect of refrigerants to be less than 100.
Please provide more information about the project if we can help further.
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