NECB reference building HVAC system selection (Table 8.4.4.8)?

A little bit of background: I'm modelling a two-storey open office building (about 56,000 sq ft) with a PIU system for each floor (DX-coils for cooling and hot water loop for heating). I ran a compliance simulation in CANQuest to see if the building complies with the NECB 2011, and noticed a few major discrepancies when comparing the proposed building to the reference building. I dug a little deeper and looked at the reference building .pd2 file, and found that the PIU systems had been replaced with over 50 packaged single zone systems (PSZ). Looking at Table 8.4.4.8.A in NECB 2011 pertaining to reference building HVAC system selection, it does state that office buildings that are two storeys or less will be modelled with PSZ's, however this approach seems highly impractical and unrealistic. Has anybody encountered this problem with "larger" two storey buildings? Also, are there any methods of working around this so that the reference building is modelled properly and in a way that makes it comparable to the proposed building?

13saw13's avatar
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13saw13
asked 2017-06-26 12:35:13 -0500
__AmirRoth__'s avatar
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__AmirRoth__
updated 2017-07-20 12:56:20 -0500
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"however this approach seems highly impractical and unrealistic". Why? This is code compliance, if the baseline determination says PSZ, then PSZ it is. Your feelings aren't welcome when it comes to code compliance :) (however dumb or unfair you think that is)

Julien Marrec's avatar Julien Marrec (2017-06-27 03:06:06 -0500) edit
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