ComChecks for Apartment Complexes

[jchristopherslice]

I was being trained by a more experienced engineer to perform lighting ComChecks on projects where we performed the electrical design. I asked if it was acceptable, when performing ComChecks for Apartment Projects, to include one typical for each type of floorplan in the complex instead of adding the total square footage and total light fixtures of all the units.

He said that the actual residential units in Apartments didn't need to be included at all in the ComCheck. He based this on the limited instruction in 2009 IECC (applicable code for project's location) regarding residential units. It basically just says that 50% of the lamps in installed lighting must be high-efficacy (2009 IECC, Section 404). The project does meet the requirements for consideration in the code as Residential rather than Commercial (only three stories).

Is this correct? In reading through the ComCheck software's help section, I could not confirm this. If it's not, does inclusion of a single typical for each unit type suffice?

 

[steve66]

No, you don't typically need to include the apartments. As the engineer said, there is an exception if 50% of the fixtures are high -efficacy.

Residential lighting is often supplemented by plug-in lamps, so its kind of hard to regulate what people can buy and plug in. I think that's the main reason for the exception.