Can you verify that FTE requested in PI form 3 is actually FTE per shift? The goal is to describe how many employees are typically working in the building at any single time, not the FTE equivalent of all shift work added together? FTE per shift makes more sense in terms of parking requirements , bicycle use, etc., although the FTE of all shifts added together might make more sense for overall water use.
I am doing a fire station, which will be manned by 3 shifts of 3 firefighters each. Each shift works for two days straight, 24 hours a day, and then has 4 days off. Shift changes happen every other day at 7 am. A typical shift is 49 hours, counting the 1-hour overlap. Average hours worked per week varies, since the week has 7 days but the shift rotation is 6 days. For example, if a shift works Sunday and Monday on a given week it will also work on Saturday that same week.
If I follow the suggested formula, I would describe 2 shifts of 49 hours and one shift of 73 hours to cover the whole week. This would give a FTE of [(49*2 + 73)/40]*3 = 12.8. However, this number seems meaningless, since it has no relationship to the number of people actually in the building. There are only 3 firefighters in the building typically; 6 firefighters at the shift change overlap.
How would you suggest I describe this in Plf3-1?
David Posada
Integrated Design & LEED SpecialistSERA Architects
LEEDuser Expert
1980 thumbs up
May 29, 2014 - 6:56 pm
Off the top of my head, I would start with an FTE of 9, as that represents 3 firefighters working 3 shifts per day. That should provide a pretty accurate calculation of the water use of staff over the course of a typical week. (You'll want to create a "fixture group" in WEp1 for the firefighters on shift, since they are likely to bathe/ shower.)
At shift overlap, the count of 6 would be your peak number of users in the building, which helps calculate the proper number of bike racks for the busiest times of day.
Does that make sense?
Rosemary Muller
ArchitectMuller & Caulfield Architects
May 30, 2014 - 12:01 am
David, thanks for your comments. Some additional facts:
- There are never 3 shifts in the same day. Half the days have only one shift, the other half have a one-hour overlap between 2 different shifts. On reading the form another time, I note that the Pif 3-1 form defines FTE as occupancy during the "regularly occurring moment" with the greatest volume of full-time occupants. It sounds like they don't want people who are there at different times of day or on different days added together.
- Based on this reasoning, FTE could be 6 (at shift overlap), but never 9. This makes sense for use in the SS points for bicycles and parking, but does not make sense for water use.
- For water use, it might be best to count the firefighters as "residents", since they are there 24 hours a day. There would be 3 residents. FTE may give less water use, since it doesn't count daily showers, etc.