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Space Areas in LEED summary and ABUPS
Posted by Luis Sousa on 13-Sep-19 02:08 PM

A common question from users goes something like this:

  • In the LEED summary, EAp2-1. Space Usage Type table, how does DesignBuilder allocate zones to the "regularly occupied area" or "unconditioned area" categories?
The zone status would normally be assigned following the rules below:

(1) If the zone is not included in thermal calculations, it will not be reported in the summary (it cannot be added to any zone group either).

(2) If the zone is included in an HVAC zone group, it will be reported as "Conditioned" in "Input Verification and Results Summary" and "Regularly Occupied Area" in LEED EAp2-1 table.

(3) In DesignBuilder, only zones assigned with "2-Unconditioned", "2-Ventilated" will have "Part of Total Floor Area" to be reported as "No" in which case the area will be excluded from both the conditioned floor area and the total floor area in the Building Area sub table and the Normalized Metrics sub tables. However, this will not affect the "Conditioned" or "Regularly Occupied Area" reporting.

For example if you want to exclude some zones, say toilets, out of "Regulated Occupied Area", you need to remove these zones from HVAC zone groups.

Likewise, if you want to include some zones, such as stairs, in "Regularly Occupied Area" instead of "Unconditioned Area", you need to include these zones in HVAC zone groups.
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