Establish a system for tracking the cost and number of pieces of cleaning equipment purchased during the performance period. Remember, to earn this credit, 100% of cleaning equipment purchased during the performance period must comply with the associated criteria. You are not required to set up a tracking system, but you will need to provide this information, so it’s good to have a tracking infrastructure in place before you start making purchases.
Teams usually use the number of pieces to demonstrate compliance, though cost is an acceptable approach. If you have several relatively inexpensive pieces of non-compliant equipment and one very expensive compliant piece, it may make sense to run the numbers to see if you meet the 20% threshold by cost, if you can’t meet it by number of pieces. If you don’t have cost data for existing equipment and you want to demonstrate compliance by cost, work with suppliers that carry the equipment to gather the cost data.
Projects outside the U.S., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam are now eligible to earn Regional Priority credits. Check out this USGBC document to learn more.
If you already have a comprehensive list of equipment currently in use, this will save time. If not, you'll need to schedule some time to compile your inventory.
Be sure to include vendor-provided as well as building-provided equipment in your inventory. Some vendors have a master list of all the equipment they use and can provide this. If your vendor can provide such a list, work together to highlight the specific equipment types, names, manufacturers, numbers, and dates of purchase applicable to your project building.
The refrigerant charge is typically calculated automatically in the LEED Online credit form. It is the relationship between how much refrigerant is needed (in pounds) and the cooling capacity (in gross ARI-rated tons) of the equipment.
Note that this credit requires the weighted average of all refrigerants to be less than 100, even if, individually, some are higher. That’s why it’s important to run the calculations several times until the final equipment is selected for your project.
All refrigerants involve tradeoffs. HFCs, for example, don’t contain chlorine and have zero ozone depletion potential, but they have significant global warming impact. HFCs are also less efficient than conventional, chlorine-based refrigerants, which are the most damaging to the ozone layer. Ammonia is highly efficient and ozone safe, but it can be hazardous to human health if released in large quantities.
