I'm wondering about LEED certification for a C&S building that will have no ventilation and will have no FTEs upon initial completion. There won't be any RTUs or exhaust fans installed as part of the C&S project, just unit heaters to maintain space above 55 DegF during winter. There will be various tenant build-outs in the future, but those spaces haven't been delineated yet. In reviewing the prerequisites I have two major concerns.
The first is the minimum FTE requirement in the Minimum Program Requirements document from January 2011. This states the project must serve 1 or more FTE occupant(s). Upon initial completion there won’t be any FTEs in this building. Since there won’t be any tenants there won’t even be an on-site facility manager when construction is done. Will this requirement preclude the building from LEED C&S certification?
The second issue is that there is no plan to ventilate the C&S project as all the ventilation air will come through the RTUs once installed for the tenant spaces. I know we can upload a lease agreement with language about the tenant requirement to adhere to ASHRAE 62.1, but other parts of the form require you to select whether the project is mechanically/naturally ventilated/conditioned and the form will not show compliance until one of these is checked. Since none of these apply I can’t complete the form. For this prerequisite I also have to do upload IEQp1-RS1 which asks the following:
Provide a document with the required signatory statement, copied directly from the form, signed and dated on letterhead.
I have no idea what they're requesting here. Has anyone done this before?
In general, with no method of ventilation at initial completion and no FTEs, is LEED certification of any kind even possible?
Would greatly appreciate input anyone may have.
Susann Geithner
PrincipalEmerald Built Environments
1297 thumbs up
March 14, 2012 - 1:58 pm
For once, your final stage and that's what you are considering during the LEED certification is the occupied building. You haven't built the building to have it be unoccupied with zero FTE and no ventilation. Your RTU's even if you don't install them now is a mechanical ventilation. Your FTE is the number the building is design for. Use the LEED CS appendix in the reference guide to determine the number. Depending on your credit selection you might also have to have a minimum number of spaces occupied and I'm not sure if there need to be a minimum occupancy overall.
Have you considered using the precertification for LEED CS?