This might sound strange and totally out of the scope of LEED, but we wanted to check within LEED User since there are so many experts here.
There is a project where the tenant has installed some sort of reflecting mirror inside its space. By reflecting mirror we mean a "pool" of some 10 ft by 10 ft and about 2 inches deep. However instead of exposed water it has been filled up with exposed burnt oil.
According to the tenant, this burnt oil has been purified, but it still seems a lot strange to us and we were wondering how we can approach this alternative type of "finishing material".
LEED does not mention anything like this in VOC emissions, but VOC are emmited because they come from hydrocarbons, and burnt oil is an hydrocarbon. And obiously LEED nor SCAQMD provide a VOC limit for "burnt oil". At some point it will have to gasify.
Besides LEED Compliance, does anyone have any advice about this situation? Does anyone know if exposed "purified" burnt oil will gasify or become harmful at any point?
Thank you very much.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11478 thumbs up
March 21, 2013 - 9:42 pm
Michael, it strikes me as out of scope for LEED—more like a furnishing than anything else. Anyone else? Interesting question.I'm curious about what this stuff is, though. Burnt oil just sounds like blackened stuff on my frying pan. From your description it sounds more like what I'd call lamp oil. If that's the case it might be quite non-volatile.
Michael E. Edmonds-Bauer
Edmonds International38 thumbs up
March 21, 2013 - 9:57 pm
An internation example from which this application based its design from is the masterpiece "20:50" by Richard Wilson at the Saatchi Gallery in London, UK. It is a mirror pool with oil instead of water.
The "burnt oil" is exactly what you mentioned, an exposed blackened stuff contained inside a metal object.
According to the description of the designer it is innert, it does not gasify and it is not flammable. However we had our doubts since this was totaly a non conventional application of a finishing materials, and specially it was made of hydrocarbons.
In case anyone has any experience with something similar it will be really appreciated to hear more comments.
Thank you very much Tristan. If this evolves with more information we'll keep you posted.