I have a client that has millions of square feet under roof. In 2006 they built a state of the art office/cooking lab building, designed for LEED NC 2.2. However they did not complete the LEED NC certification. They would really like to achieve LEED 2009 EBOM certification on this building. However, using Energy Star Portfolio manager, they do not meet the rating of 69 as required by EAp2. Any suggestions?
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Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11475 thumbs up
March 23, 2010 - 5:58 pm
Karen, this is a basic question but an important one (in my view). Have you conducted an audit to identify energy waste, and low-cost ways to improve things? As you probably know you can get credit for this under EAc2.1.
Karen Stewart
President, LEED APEcoPotential
56 thumbs up
March 24, 2010 - 7:11 pm
We have conducted audit and recommissioned the building, resulting in many improvements. However, the improvements will never get us to the rating of 69. The office building has 20 test commercial kitchens. It is a 1 of a kind building.
Corinna Kester
Consultant, Sustainable Buildings and OperationsKEMA
51 thumbs up
March 24, 2010 - 10:31 pm
Hi Karen -
You might want to take a look at the LEED-EB: O&M v2008 EAp2 CIR dated 3/2/2009. It outlines a path for exempting unique high energy use spaces in a building, if they are sub-metered and constitute less than 10% of the building square footage. I'm not sure how applicable this will be to your situation, but it may provide a direction for exploration; I have seen this approach utilized successfully for other buildings. If this approach seems fruitful, I'd recommend submitting a CIR before moving forward with your full LEED application, so you can lock in a ruling about your proposed approach.
Jenny Carney
Vice PresidentWSP
LEEDuser Expert
657 thumbs up
March 25, 2010 - 4:49 pm
Karen,
It's not clear to me that this building would be eligible for Energy Star based on the unusual load/space type of many cooking labs. I would suggest getting in touch with Energy Star to see how they recommend classifying this space, and it may turn out that you should be using the Case 2 calculator instead of Energy Star because your building isn't eligible to use Energy Star.
Karen Stewart
President, LEED APEcoPotential
56 thumbs up
March 25, 2010 - 7:35 pm
Corina,
We have looked at sub-metering to exclude the high energy use. However the sub-metering would costs over $50,000. Client does not want to spend that much on sub-metering that appears to not have an ROI.
Karen Stewart
President, LEED APEcoPotential
56 thumbs up
March 25, 2010 - 7:39 pm
Jenny,
Based on the information from Energy Star and multiple energy consultants, the building is eligible for an Energy Star rating and falls under Case 1. However, I think I will call them and see if there are any "exceptions to the rule." Thank you!