I?ve run into one of those grey areas of the Appendix G language on a
project. We are looking at a major renovation project where the shell of
the building will be upgraded.

Clearly the baseline building will be modeled with insulation U-values
that correspond to the existing conditions of the building rather than the
insulation levels prescribed by tables 5.5-1 to 5.5-8. I think this is
pretty well established.

My question is about the quantity of glazing in each case. For this
project we will be punching new glazing into the existing fa?ade as part
of the renovations.

? Table G3.1, Section 5 states that ?Vertical fenestration areas
for new buildings and alterations shall equal that in the proposed design
or 40% of gross above-grade wall area, whichever is smaller.? So if we add
new windows, it would seem that the baseline building should also have
those windows, but what should their U-value be? Same U-value as the other
existing windows? Lookup the value for new glazing?

? Lower in that same section of Table G3.1 it states: ?Existing
Buildings. For existing building envelopes, the baseline building design
shall reflect existing conditions prior to any revisions that are part of
the scope of work being evaluated.? To me, this seems to say that you
would go with the existing quantity of glazing, and the proposed model
would have more glazing than the baseline, even if the proposed does not
exceed the 40% cap.

There seems to be a little contradiction between the two requirements. My
inclination is that the existing building clause overrides the requirement
that the same amount of glazing be used in each model.

Have any of you worked on a project where this came up? Any thoughts? It
seems like this could potentially be one of those hot topics of
discussion.

Thanks,

Nathan Miller, PE, LEED? AP