This is more about FTE values (and is also related to MPR):
1) The project's occupancy is peculiar in the sense that the regular occupants have 'dependents' ~ regular visitors in terms of rights, & have access to facilities (gym, cafeteria) but don't use office space. They have a special access 'pass' therefore no need to register. does LEED have and accepted/logical way of assuming FTE values in this case?
2) The client also has 'service providers' - contractors who clean, enter data, serve as waitresses, logistics, maintenance. They come to work for longer hours in a day and more days in a week (6) compared to regular occupants. Do they fall under "part-time occupants" w/ values greater that 8 hours a day, and going to work 6 days in a week or "regular occupants" who don't really have 'desks'? Or will they even be counted at all?
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Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11477 thumbs up
June 22, 2010 - 7:47 am
To answer your questions:1) LEED does not have a rigid rule for this situation. You need to use some common sense in making sure that these visitors are factored into the water calculations, in some way.2) They need to be counted—I think you have some leeway in deciding what method works best. Either of your solutions could work, as long as the calculations are relatively accurate in reflecting their usage.
Pablo Fortunato Suarez
Principal ESD Consultant/ArchitectGreenArc Sustainable Building & Architecture
253 thumbs up
June 28, 2010 - 10:05 pm
one more related inquiry:
The offices have been hiring over the past several months (before and after the LEED project application) so the number of occupants has been increasing. We made the LEED application in May. I just wanted to confirm: Is it safe to assume that the number of occupants to be declared should be the number of occupants during application? If not when should be base this number on?
Jason Franken
Sustainability ProfessionalLEEDuser Expert
608 thumbs up
July 1, 2010 - 9:48 am
That's a good question, Pablo. The key point is that you'll want to make sure that you're using consistent figures for occupancy throughout your entire LEED application. So, while it is best to assume that the number of occupants is the total number at the time of your application, you'll need to cross-reference the values that you use for any credits that depend on occupancy to ensure that the application data is consistent; if the values are not consistent because you completed certain tasks at different points in your performance period, you'll just need to be very thorough in your narratives to explain why there are discrepancies in your data. For instance, if your occupancy was 200 FTE and 50 visitors in May when you completed your WEp1 calculations, but was only 150 FTE and 25 visitors when you conducted an Alternative Commuting survey for SSc4 back in March, you don't need to conduct a new survey, but should provide a detailed narrative explaining why two different values for occupancy are applicable to the two different credits. Ideally, these values would be consistent across all credits, but it will not invalidate your application if there are discrepancies as long as you have a reasonable explanation for the differences.