Hello All,

For the majority of the LEED projects I work on I decouple the space
load from the ventilation load by using a dedicated outdoor air unit
(DAOU). Before GBCI took over the review process the proposed and
baseline models contained the same number of systems meaning if we used
a DOAU in the proposed model - we modeled the same unit in the
baseline. I recently received a comment to remove the DOAU from the
baseline and add the ventilation air to the space load systems. For that
particular model it didn't have a very big impact so I didn't think
twice about it.

The question - should a DOAU be modeled in the baseline case or should
the outdoor air load be added to the mechanical systems that take care
of the space load?

Thanks

Seth Spangler, LEED(r) AP