G/L less water

There are some key differences between the U.S./Canadian and EU VOC regulatory systems. The EU Decopaint Directive cites VOC content based on a different boiling temperature cutoff than the North American counterparts. This is the 250 degree cutoff referred to in your question. This can cause some high boiling point VOCs that would be regulated in North America (e.g. Texanol) to not be counted in the EU. The g/L less water and VOC exempt solvent approach comes from the U.S. regulatory scheme. Back in the 1970s at the beginning of coatings VOC regulation, the USEPA was concerned that house paint manufacturers would simply dilute their products to reduce VOC content and direct users to apply heavier or use multiple coats. The solution was to not allow manufacturers to include the water content in their VOC calculations. For high solids coatings, this makes little difference. For a low or mid solids coating, the policy causes the stated VOC content to be dramatically higher than the actual content percentage would indicate. My company has some 15% solids products with 0.5% VOC content by weight (theoretical 5 g/L) with a regulatory/label VOC content of 100 g/L. The Low Solids category better reflects reality in that water is included and is only available for products with 1 pound or less of solids content. Getting to the meat of your question regarding VOC information submission, I have requested a clarification from USGBC staff on how (and if) the IEQ TAG has addressed this issue. We did a substantive amount of work on porting over international standards, but I don't recall if we came to a final conclusion on VOC equivalency. I will post a follow-up once I have more information.

EU vs. US testing criteria has come up in a couple places on the forum. The USGBC recently released Alternative Compliance Path (ACP) guidance for the 2009 rating systems. However, with respect to VOC testing criteria they only offer ACPs for IEQc4.3, Flooring Systems. The revised USGBC rating system documents, including the ACPs are here: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=220

Hi Dwayne, Does anyone has direct experience with this issue? We also have some candian made based products which state 0% VOCs but VOCs are not stated in g/l nor do i know if the 0% is per EPA Std. 24 calculations. Please provide comment  if you have had LEED reviewers respond either way. THANKS! Debra