We are working on NC Office Building Project.
The building has 6 lab sinks, 3 kitchenette sinks and 9 showers (for guests, will be used maybe ones a week).
Should we include to the calculation?
How we can calculate the water usage rates?
Thank you,
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Charles Nepps
NH Green Consulting97 thumbs up
July 23, 2014 - 11:41 am
The usage is driven by the FTE (from PIf3) numbers, so you need to be sure you have those correct. You 'll find that for "general office" space no transients are assumed, but you must make an educated guess at the number of visitors expected and include those numbers on WEp1 form, or it will be rejected by the USGBC during review.
ebru unver
LEED AP BD+CILTAY
4 thumbs up
July 24, 2014 - 9:17 am
Thank you Charles,
I will check the PIF3 form.
Unfortunately it not easy to predict the usage rate for the guests.
Do you have any idea for the lab sink and kitchenette sinks (will be use at the cafeteria and service area).
Thank you again,
Charles Nepps
NH Green Consulting97 thumbs up
July 24, 2014 - 11:02 am
By "cafeteria" do you mean an area where food will be prepared and served/sold to employees and visitors, or do you mean more of a breakroom situation? If part of the office building is designated as an operating cafeteria, you will need to identify that on the PIf3 form in Table 1 and Table 4. I would assume kitchenette sinks would have the same usage rate as kitchen sinks and you should only consider FTE, no transients. I'm a bit unclear about the lab sinks, what exactly will their purpose be?
ebru unver
LEED AP BD+CILTAY
4 thumbs up
August 1, 2014 - 7:58 am
To be more clear, there will be 3 cafeterias: 1 where food will be served, 1 in the shelter (to be use in case of emergency) and the last one is for break room.
There are also 6 lab sink, however we can not predict the usage rate.
What you can advise me, how should I calculate the water consumption?
Thank you
Charles Nepps
NH Green Consulting97 thumbs up
August 1, 2014 - 9:41 am
Just to clarify further, do you mean “lab” as in laboratory sink or “lav” as in lavatory sinks (hand washing sink)? The reason this is important is “lab” sinks do not need to be considered in the water reduction calcs, however “lav” sink do.
Break room kitchen sinks would be accessible to all office workers, so basically you’ll need to assume 1 use per day per FTE
The “emergency shelter” sinks can be ignored, depending on your definition of emergency. If it‘s for use in case of, say, natural disaster, and not simply when the regular cafeteria is too busy, than it’s safe to ignore the water usage there. You should include a narrative explaining that the fixtures in this area are only for emergency use, and perhaps give examples of what would constitute an emergency.
The operating cafeteria is a bit more difficult. If the kitchen sink is equipped only with a commercial pre-rinse spray valve, then you merely need to show that the spray valve complies with ASME A112.18.1 standard of 1.6 gpm or less; it does not need to be included in the reduction calcs. If the sink is used primarily for filling pots, washing produces, etc., that’s all considered process water, which also does not need to be considered in the calculations. If the sink is there primarily for hand washing, then you need to make some educated guesses about the usage based the cafeteria’s hours of operation and number of staff working there. I haven’t found any USGBC guidelines regarding usage rates in these types of situations, but if someone else out there has, please jump in and correct me.