How many people per operable window? If using operable windows, locate as many people as possible close to them. Although strictly speaking it may make sense to count one person as needing one operable window, the experience of the LEEDuser team is that the credit has been approved by counting multiple people sitting close to a window as long as a person is within a 20-foot depth and a 10-foot length from one. The operable portion of the window must also be at least 4% of the size of the floor area of the space accessible to a given window, per ASHRAE 62.1-2007. For example, for a 5-foot-long window plus 10 feet on either side the total qualifying floor area would be 25 (5 + 10 + 10) multiplied by 20, or 500 ft2. At 4% of the floor area, the operable window area must be at least 20 ft2. Refer to the Documentation Toolkit for a diagrammatic representation of the window-area-to-floor-area relationship.
