We got this review comment
1. The documentation does not confirm that the non-fixture usage (e.g. electric water coolers and janitors sinks) is measured and can be deducted from the domestic cold water usage to measure the usage of the indoor plumbing fixtures (described in WEp Indoor Water Use Reduction).
Provide revised documentation demonstrating that at least 80% of the indoor fixtures described in WEp Indoor Water Use Reduction are metered, either directly or by deducting all other measured water use from the measured total water consumption of the building and grounds.
Is the "electric water coolers" is for supplying drinking water? The project owner did install water deispensors in the project to supply cold and hot drinking water for direct drinking and making tea and coffee. The water source of water densiper is from building potable water piping and filtered before entering water despinsor. The recommanding daily water drinking volume per person is half gallon and it is very small amont water, comparing with indoor water use calculation sheet in WE credit.
Therefore, shall I reply about my drinking water analysis since no electic water cooler is installed and water despinsors shall be included in reply message?
Sofia Barahona
B-green Chile8 thumbs up
May 31, 2022 - 11:33 am
Hi Jorng-ren, we just had a design review of a project with the same comment from the LEED Reviewer. Have you had any luck figuring out how to address this observation to meet the requirement?
Devendra Chaughule
Senior Manager - Sustainable ServicesSurmount
29 thumbs up
August 11, 2022 - 1:49 am
Hi Jorng-ren and Sofia,
The same comment we received from the reviewer.
Please let me know how u addressed this point.
Kelli Kimura
Opsis Architecture13 thumbs up
May 15, 2023 - 5:57 pm
Hi all,
We received this same comment - Checking in on if anyone has had success addressing it. Any insights are appreciated!
Denise Bevilaqua
HIGHLAND ASSOCIATES28 thumbs up
May 17, 2023 - 2:18 pm
Hello all.
I have seen the same comments recently and I believe the sticking point is verbiage in the credit language which denotes "Indoor plumbing fixtures and fittings: Meter water systems serving at least 80% of the indoor fixtures and fittings described in WE Prerequisite Indoor Water Use Reduction....." Water coolers and Janitor sinks (for example) are not incuded in the WE calculator and are instead considered "Process Water" for the purposes of that credit. They are therefore being excluded from the Reviewer's interpretation of the uses that make up the Indoor Plumbing Fixtures and Fittings sub-system (regardless of the fact that most practical applications feed these items with potable water from the same piping system). Our project team has decided to add sub-meters on some projects in key locations which will allow the noted uses to be subtracted. On other projects we will document the credit without submeters, write a narrative clearly describing how we feel we are meeting the INTENT of the credit, and await a decision. (We have not submitted using this strategy yet).
Depending upon your project circumstances, you may be able to submeter "two" systems in another way. For example if you can submeter humidification as a separate system + one other you will meet the requirement.
This has suddenly become one of the more difficult credits to achieve given this very literal interpretation of the Guidelines. Clients are rejecting the idea of the added expense to duplicate branch piping for purposes of submetering or adding multiple meters (especially if are not networked and they have to manually read them). We have projects where use at the Janitors sinks, etc. is drawfed by the water consumed by Processes and it seems counter productive to discourage Advanced Metering because the relatively tiny amount of water used @ JC's & drinking founutains is not segregated. I am secretly hoping that USGBC will recognize the problem and issue an addendum to both clarify and correct this condition.
Karen Joslin
Sustainability LeadPAE Consulting Engineers
5 thumbs up
May 17, 2023 - 2:40 pm
The simplest approach is to have a single meter for 100% of the domestic water use - we have not seen this comment even as recently as last week in reviews. Probably just jinxed all of our project submissions saying this. Is it the 80% calculation maybe where things are hanging up? Drinking fountains and janitor sinks are defined as domestic water in plumbing service. Especially if the owner states they want all of the domestic water metered together - the goal is to meet the owner's goals and if that is a special circumstance then we will use that exception. Janitor sinks in particular can be terrible water wasters.