Our project is a three story Professional Office Building addition to an adjacent hospital. The central plant [also adjacent to our project] will be providing hot water, steam, and chilled water for domestic hot water and space conditioning. The tenant spaces have already been determined and no tenant will occupy more than 75% of the CS space area.
I'm admittedly a little confused by the reference guide relative to the CS versus NC M&V requirements. I'm reading the LEED reference guide, the comments here, and the LEEDuser credit checklist and come across the following conclusion: only electricity end uses need be submetered to meet the CS EAc5.1 credit requirements. Gas and water would be best practices but not required by this credit. Can someone please confirm that is a correct understanding?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
July 7, 2015 - 9:43 am
I agree that the Reference Guide is a bit confusing.
I don't think that your conclusion is correct. If the CS portion of the project includes gas space heating for example, it must be in your M&V Plan. Your Plan must address everything in the CS scope of work, especially anything for which energy savings are being claimed.
To be clear, the IPMVP does not require anything to be submetered. How you gather the data you need to calibrate the energy model is up to your Plan.
Matthew VanSweden
Director of Intersectional Professional Services55 thumbs up
July 7, 2015 - 5:15 pm
I appreciate your perspective Marcus, but I struggle to see how it is substantiated [no offense] -- I'm just tying to get to the bottom of this.
From LEEDuser's checklist page [emphasis added]:
"Discuss the potential scope of your M&V plan. __Will__ you meter natural gas, water consumption, or other variables? You will be __required__ to meter all electricity-using systems, but __should__ also __consider__ expanding the scope to include natural gas too. Some projects find it helpful to incorporate water meters in an effort to verify water-reduction goals."
The "will" and "consider" language tells me that electricity-using systems are required but gas and water are optional. Also on the LEEDuser’s checklist page:
“EAc5.1 focuses on electricity-using systems and projects that do not use electrical systems are not eligible for this credit.”
This says nothing of gas or water. Additionally, in the Reference Guide, page 321, is says [emphasis added]:
“The credit focuses on the energy–using systems (and primarily the __electricity-using__ systems) … to achieve this credit, the __electricity-using__ systems in the core and shell building should be addressed in the M&V plan … __Consider__ measuring other energy use (i.e. natural gas)…”
The nuance is subtle, "require" electricity-using systems, "consider" other energy uses. I can only read this one way: electricity-using systems are the only systems required to be included in the M&V plan.
What am I missing?
The point of contention is that the contractor has associated $60k to meter the steam and the chilled / heated water coming from a central plant to be used for domestic hot water and space conditioning and I am struggling with how to substantiate the requirement for these meters, especially considering the unique lease agreement between our client and the end user of the space. I was aligned with your thinking in the beginning of the project [which is why we priced the additional meters], but now that I looked into, I'm questioning my original stance, hence the question.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
July 7, 2015 - 5:38 pm
Sounds like you had a fundamental understanding of the referenced standard, the IPMVP, but allowed the Reference Guide language to confuse you. The purpose of the IPMVP is to verify predicted energy savings. So if you are claiming savings your M&V Plan should be structured to verify those savings.
There is no definitive language in the Reference Guide that requires anything. "Primarily" is a qualifier and very clearly implies "primarily, but not exclusively". "Consider" can also mean "consider when appropriate". We clearly agree that the language is confusing and unclear in terms of definitive requirements. When that happens I rely on my understanding of the fundamentals and not on the potential interpretation of LEED language.
I have implemented many M&V Plans under Option D. The more you try to exclude from the M&V scope, the harder it will be to calibrate your model depending upon the submetering. I also have been a LEED Reviewer for this credit for over ten years now so I am sharing how I review it.
Will you be claiming any energy savings under EAp2 related to the steam or chilled heated water for DHW or space conditioning? If the answer is yes then it needs to be addressed in the M&V Plan.
Matthew VanSweden
Director of Intersectional Professional Services55 thumbs up
July 27, 2015 - 3:17 pm
Received the following from a GBCI staffer via "contact us:"
"Yes, sub-metering for fuels other than electricity is not required for the core and shell M&V."
Seems to clear things up so I just wanted to follow-up.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
July 28, 2015 - 9:28 am
I'm sorry but interpretations on technical issues obtained that way are often wrong. The customer service folks only look at the surface of these kinds of issues. For this credit you are not required to submeter anything, even for NC projects.
Again you need to gather the data necessary to calibrate the model. If you don't include any measurement of this data in the M&V Plan you do not have a valid M&V Plan. How will you calibrate the energy model without it?
Your original issue was having to spend too much money to do this. You can't do it right without some type of measurement. So rather than rely on exceptions and interpretations in what appears to be a point hunting exercise the best solution is to not pursue this credit. Not all credits are applicable to every project. In the vast majority of projects the M&V does not really add any value. Are you chasing points or does the owner have a strong need to verify energy savings?
Matthew VanSweden
Director of Intersectional Professional Services55 thumbs up
July 28, 2015 - 1:15 pm
Fair enough. The vague language allows various interpretation which opens the door for disagreement. When I am dealing with sub-contractors who say what they've designed meets the requirements of the credit, and I then propose what I interpret as to be required and they then come back with a $60k add, we get to be where we are. I am attempting to establish what is _actually_ required so I can establish a foundation from which to pick my battles. Of course it is a point chasing exercise but for a whole host of non-ideal but real-life circumstances, that is what some of these certification exercises come down to, this project included. That said, we are also trying to parse out what the end-user actually wants [in this case, our "client" is actually the developer - not the end user of the space].