2018 IECC - Reference Building Capacities
Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone knows how to interpret this requirement for a reference building for 2018 IECC. It states that "capacities sized proportionally to the capacities in the proposed designed based on sizing runs" and "no larger cooling capacity safety factor than the proposed." I assume this means that the proportional capacity and the baseline capacity has to be the same, but since it says sizing run I assume its talked about the safety factors being the same is that the correct interpretation of this?
The problem I'm having now if I set the sizing factor to be the same proposed it results in a less capacities for the equipment in the baseline building thus not truly proportional, and I get really high unmet heating hours in the baseline model which creates less saving potential for the equipment. Does anyone have experience of what to do in this situation, are we allowed to increase the safety to reach around the same capacities as the proposed because my proposed building is only 10% better than the reference building when IECC 2018 required it to be 15%.
