Action Steps

Implement a water-management plan for the cooling tower that addresses the following areas:

Decide whether you will explore WEc4.1, which involves chemical management and is very attainable, and/or WEc4.2, which involves using non-potable water in the cooling tower and requires substantial investment if you don’t have a system already in place. You may also choose to pursue both options. See below for more details on each option. Each option is worth one point, and pursuing both options will yield two points.

Do you have a cooling tower? If not, your project is not eligible for this credit, even if you realize environmental benefits from not having one.

Calibrate meters per the manufacturer’s recommendations, and maintain calibration records. (If the meters are owned by a utility or other third party, you are not required to track this.)

Establish procedures for reviewing and using metered data to improve system performance.

Employ system-level metering covering 40% (for one point) or 80% (for two points) of the total expected annual energy use.

Tenant energy use is not considered an acceptable end use according to these credit requirements. That said, if the breakdown includes tenant energy broken into additional end uses - such as lighting, plug loads, tenant-owned HVAC - then these can contribute to the overall submetering scheme.

For each major end use-use application, compile the expected annual energy consumption, percentage of total annual energy use, and percentage of submetered energy consumption.

Develop and record a breakdown of the building’s significant end-use energy applications. This can be performed as part of the ASHRAE Level I energy audit required for EAp1: Energy Efficiency Best Management Practices.

Assess the current level of building system submetering and the feasibility of adding additional submeters for systems that are not already monitored.