Our project building will we connected to a large-scale city district heating network. In the design review we got the following comment: "Please see the Treatment of District or Campus Thermal Energy document (http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=7671) and the 2010 LEED Application Guide for Multiple Buildings and On-Campus Building Projects (https://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=10486) for more information regarding how to document this credit when utilizing district or campus heating. Please provide additional documentation as necessary to confirm that the district or campus heating system meets the requirements of this credit." What kind of documentation is the review team seeking for? The only guideline I could find in the above mentioned documents is that all downstream and upstream equipment must meet the credit requirements to earn this credit. How do I demonstrate compliance for the district heating system?

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Maria Porter

Sustainability specialist

Skanska Sweden

LEEDuser Basic Member

205 thumbs up

Fri, 03/30/2012 - 11:28

Hi Magnus Do you not have district cooling as well? I have district heating and cooling and have this credit together with two of Sweden’s district cooling/heating companies. One of them is reviewed and ok. You have to contact the company serving your building with district cooling and ask them for all information regarding this credit. It is in their interest to have it done too. You have to do it the same way as if it were a smaller cooling machine, just that the numbers will be a lot bigger. But the end result should still be under 100 (impact per ton) to show compliance. If you have no refrigerants then there is nothing to show. Does this help at all?

Magnus Stagnäs

Life Cycle Engineer

Finnmap Consulting Oy

LEEDuser Basic Member

22 thumbs up

Fri, 03/30/2012 - 12:15

Hi Maria, thank you for your answere. We don't have district cooling, only heating. That is what makes me confused. We have chiller units on the roof of the building and the documentation for these is OK. Now the review team asks us to demonstrate compliance also for the district heating. I assume the district heating company doesn't use refrigerants, so that shouldn't be a major problem. However, a couple of concerns remain: First; the table in the LEED Online form is for cooling units only. How do I document the requirements for a district heating plant? Second; if I enter the capasity of the district plant (huge capasity compared to the buildings own cooling units) into the table, the relative impact of the cooling units will be close to zero. This can't be the purpose of this credit, can it?

Maria Porter

Sustainability specialist

Skanska Sweden

LEEDuser Basic Member

205 thumbs up

Tue, 04/03/2012 - 15:06

Magnus You have to ask the district heating company if they have refrigerants. Otherwise you have your review response there: No refrigerants! If you have refrigerants, it is not a problem to show this in the same table as your other smaller machines. The end result is "Average refrigerant impact PER ton", so it doesn't affect the end result (assuming refrigerants are compliant). Stockholms district energy system supplies several thousand buildings, but it is not a problem in the end. Figures are just larger in the calculation. But it did take me some thinking and googling to figure uot the metrics, how to convert Q (tons) to SI-units. Good luck!

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