Will VRF be a valid system type under the 2019 Energy Code?
I can't find a draft version of the 2019 ACM Reference Manual anywhere. This is what would tell how VRF was coded in CBECC Com and what the baseline system type would be.
I also don't see VRF as a system type available in the 2019 Research Version of CBECC Com.
VRF in CBECC-Com is coming very soon. The functionality was added some time ago (on an internal development branch), but there was a significant amount of review needed to ensure that the part-load curves provided appropriate savings estimates that did not over/under estimate compliance margins. The CEC recently approved the VRF module, and it is planned for an alpha release this spring (tentatively scheduled for April). The VRF module in CBECC-Com will use EnergyPlus's native VRF objects so no workarounds will be needed. Documentation on the modeling approach will be available along with the alpha release.
To address the second part of the question, the baseline is not dependent on the proposed system. The baseline will follow the NACM system map.
It has been on NORESCOs to do list for a long time, but It doesn't look like it's been put in yet, no. To be clear though, it's not an issue of being in the CODE, it's an issue of being nativley supported in the code compliance SOFTWARE. VRF is supported by code, you just have to justify the way you estimate it within CBECC-Com (which I have done multiple times and never had an issue)
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