Our project is on a University campus, which utilizes a Distrcit Plant. There is no Cooling Tower directly within our project, but there is one at the District Plant. Can we count the District Cooling Tower for this credit?
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Ben Stanley
Senior Sustainability ManagerWSP - Built Ecology
LEEDuser Expert
250 thumbs up
January 11, 2018 - 4:08 pm
It seems like you could meet the credit via the district plant cooling tower given that in other areas of the application, such as refrigerant management, you would be required to account for the district plant refrigerants.
emily reese moody
Sustainability Director, Certifications & ComplianceJacobs
LEEDuser Expert
479 thumbs up
October 2, 2018 - 2:45 pm
I emailed GBCI and asked about having a shared cooling tower, and got the following response:
"Cooling towers that are integral to cooling systems that serve the project building may be used to meet the credit requirements for WEc Cooling Tower Water Use, even if those cooling towers also serve other buildings. The LEED v4 BD+C Reference Guide states that WEc Cooling Tower Water Use is eligible for a campus approach. Per the "Campus Projects" section in the introduction of the Reference Guide, this means that "This credit may be documented once at the level of the master site, and then individual projects within the master site boundary earn the credit without submitting additional documentation." This guidance is also applicable when an individual LEED project is sharing facilities with other buildings, including those not pursuing LEED.
The project team must demonstrate that the credit requirements are met for all cooling towers that serve the project. If the shared cooling tower is located within the campus central plant, then to earn the credit, the project team would need to demonstrate that the requirements are met for the central plant cooling tower(s). Please note that all cooling towers within the plant must be included in the credit documentation, and the central plant must be documented consistently across applicable credits for the project."
Hope that helps.