Adjunct Professors Room

Do the professors work at those workstations more than one hour per person per day on average? Generally speaking - LEED requires you to include all of these stations as workstations. However, if you can make a case for them within the guidance noted below then you might be able to exclude these spaces.

Another interesting approach I think you could take is in explaining that the computers themselves are like task lights. They emit light and are controllable by the occupant and studies show that at least reduced task lighting is needed when occupants have access to and are working off of computers. Has anyone else tried that approach?

Text from the "Notes and Definitions" tab of the IEQ Space Matrix: http://www.usgbc.org/resources/eq-space-type-matrix

"Regularly occupied spaces are areas where one or more individuals normally spend time (more than one hour per person per day on average) seated or standing as they work, study, or perform other focused activities inside a building. Note: the one hour timeframe is continuous and should be based on the time a typical occupant uses the space. For spaces that are not used daily, the one hour timeframe should be based on the time a typical occupant spends in the space when it is in use."

seems inconsistent to me to count computers as task lights.

If they counted then why would you need task lights at work stations in open offices.

aren't 90+% of open office work stations equipped with a computer?

The tricky thing to me is when there is a gray area between a "computer lab" and an "open office" with desks with computers.

Computer labs are multioccupant spaces. I think if the desks are so small that they really only hold the computer then it could be argued that the space is a computer lab. If the desks are big then you should probably provide some task lighting.

fun times :)

I agree that if you have a cubicle with a computer than you would also want a task light but if you're in a space where all you have is a series of computers than what purpose would a task light serve? If the professors are actually writing things down and then typing things and then reading a book at that spot then a task light makes sense. I think we need to keep coming back to the intent of the credit to see what is most logical.

Where do you see reference to the fact that computer labs are multi-occupant spaces? Is this written somewhere officially in a CIR? I think that this a grey area. I will ask our GBCI contact for additional guidance on this front.

How big is the room and how big are the desks? if both are really small then task lights would be pretty silly.

If it's fairly open room with bigger desks then they may serve a purpose. I work in a big open office with low-partition cubicles. Everyone likes the lights on a lot brighter than I do. I would benefit from lower ambient lighting levels and everyone using task lights to suit their own preferences. I probably prefer 30 foot candles when I am working on my computer whereas the standard is around 50 foot candles (probably good for writing on paper or reading).

I saw "computer lab" in the IEQ space type matrix. There is a column for "multioccupant" vs " individual occupant space" and it's marked as "multioccupant." I had a similar issue where a very small room had computers for lab data entry. It's not been submitted for final review yet but I got feedback that the space could be considered multi-occupant.