We are planing on pursuing LEEDS for one of our Garment manufacturing facilities. At the moment we are trying to see the status of our water usage compared to the baseline.
We bought the factory recently and therefore, we do not have any manufacturer documents even though our fixtures are installed after 1993. In calculating the water usage is it necessary to calculate it based on the data of flow measurements of a 20% fixtures? because i was able to see a Version 2 template where they wanted us to fill the actual flow rates of fixtures enabling it to compare.Can you tell me whether Version 3 is different from that? Furthermore, we do know the total water consumption as we have used meters. Is it possible for us to use those data to establish the actual case rather than using data of fixture flow rates to arrive at the actual water usage?
Thank you.
Corinna Kester
Consultant, Sustainable Buildings and OperationsKEMA
51 thumbs up
March 19, 2010 - 3:19 am
Hi Rashid -
You cannot use whole building water meter data to satisfy the requirements of WEp1; you must do a calculation based on flush/flow rates. The documentation path for individual fixture flush/flow rates is the same in both LEED 2008 and LEED 2009, as follows:
"For each fixture type that differs from UPC or IPC efficiency requirements (because of either lesser or greater water consumption rates), provide manufacturer cut sheets verifying flow rates for each fixture type, measured flow rates for a 20% representative sample of each fixture type, or evidence of the installation date of each fixture type for which worst-case default values were used."
Jason Franken
Sustainability ProfessionalLEEDuser Expert
608 thumbs up
March 19, 2010 - 12:08 pm
Rashid, before you start conducting flow/flush rate testing of your building fixtures, you may want to spend a little time researching the fixtures to see if you can track down manufacturer information. Most plumbing fixtures and fittings will have manufacturer names stamped on them, and some will even include model numbers or flow/flush rates in terms of gallons per minute (gpm) or gallons per flush (gpf). Start by doing a building walkthrough and inspecting all of your fixtures. Organize them by fixture type and manufacturer and count up all of the installed fixtures. Look for manufacturer information on the fixture and carry a small mirror with you to make it easier to look at the back of flush handles or lavatory aerators. It may be much easier to try to contact manufacturers to acquire valid product information than to go through the process of testing a representative sample of 20% of your fixtures. If you're unable to track down manufacturer information, check back here to get assistance on conducting compliant flush/flow rate testing.