That is a good point about the exception size of 20,000 ft2 for baseline
systems, and I think the USGBC and/or GBCI would be justified in issuing a
general clarification about how to specifically approach fire stations as
many of them are LEED registered based on municipal requirements, and they
very frequently will have this mixture of usage types and small conditioned
areas. For fire stations, this isn't an exception, it is the rule!

My own LEED Gold fire station project was under v2.1, so I can?t help you
there.

The requirements for the Apparatus Bay spaces are so wildly different than
the residential areas that logically they should be separate systems,
regardless of the noted exceptions?these are clearly two different building
types, even if each is below the 20,000 ft2 individually. Or even sometimes
in total! And we haven?t even reached the ?office? spaces in the building
yet?

Also you may want to raise the issue on bldg-sim rather than equest-users,
as this could come up for users of all software packages?

*David S. Eldridge, Jr.**, P**.**E**.**, LEED AP BD+C, BEMP, HBDP*