Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
The trouble here is that the project team must establish what is considered "conventional practice" and whether or not the designed elevator technology proposed is a "significant verifiable departure from [that] documented conventional practice." - ASHRAE App G. Table G3.1 12.
Even though I have used manufacturer's calculators (such as Magnetec) in the past (years ago) to establish what is conventional practice, I would be anxious in that GBCI is becoming much more critical lately across the board for their reviews.
In their training, GBCI recommends (requires) that the project team establish this verifiable departure by submitting at least a few current examples of peer buildings (less than 5 years old) using this "typical practice" technology so as to have a fair comparison. As regenerative and other technologies are accepted as conventional practice, the will become more and more difficult to prove.
Not a great answer, but cuts to the real intent of modeling for LEED. This is really a much larger discussion of the freedom and flexibility of App G and miscellaneous loads and the attempt of GBCI to limit what is acceptable as the "AHJ". Hope that helps some.
