Occupant comfort is not the same as air temperature.
◦ What else determines whether an occupant feels comfortable?
Some other factors that determine whether an occupant feels comfortable or not include activity level (i.e. sitting vs standing vs exercising), humidity, air speed, clothing, and radiant temperature of surrounding objects.
◦ Which of those can your model predict, and which can it not?
In Revit, the model can predict the air temperature and sometimes the mean radiant temperature. However, it cannot be predicted occupant-related factors, including clothing and activity level, and also does not take into consideration humidity and air speed of the space.
The Bay Area has a mild climate.
◦ Where in your typical floor, and where else in your building, is mechanical cooling genuinely necessary?
Mechanical cooling was genuinely necessary in spaces that had a significant number of internal heat gains (lighting, people) or solar heat gains. This includes spaces like the shared collaboration areas and kitchen space on the typical floor, due to the higher occupancy levels and orientation of these rooms.
◦ What would it take to eliminate it, and what would that cost the occupants?
To eliminate mechanical cooling, the best strategies would be to reduce solar heat gain via external shading devices/strategies (such as overhangs, trees, etc.) or reducing the amount of internal heat gains through more efficient lighting systems, low-power equipment, etc. This would impact occupants as a lack of mechanical cooling would mean warmer indoor temperatures on hot days (higher temperature set-point) and less predictable indoor conditions.
You were told not to agonize over duct connections.
◦ What is the difference between a detail that matters now and one that can wait?
A detail that matters now is one is hard to reverse and will significantly affect your design and other systems (i.e. structural, MEP) later down the road. A detail that can wait (i.e. right-sizing) is typically easy to change, has low consequences on the other aspects of the design and does not impact other design decisions.
◦ How would you know you had deferred something you should not have?
You’ll know if you deferred something that you shouldn’t have if design decisions downstream are impacted (i.e. structural system can’t be determined, missing information for MEPs system, etc.). Additionally, if your model results providing inaccurate values or negative numbers (such as the energy analysis), this could suggest that you deferred something that shouldn’t have been deferred in the first place.