Yesterday USGBC posted posted key guidance for your project if it involves a district energy system. Here is the info from the LEED Resources and Tools page:
District and Campus Thermal Energy Treatment - Initial release of guidance for implementing LEED Energy & Atmosphere prerequisites and credits for existing building projects connected to a district or campus thermal energy system. Includes coverage of both LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings: O&M and LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M 2008.
Please discuss below what you think of the new guidance, and what questions you have about DES for EBOM.
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Scott Bowman
LEED FellowIntegrated Design + Energy Advisors, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
519 thumbs up
January 6, 2011 - 1:31 pm
Overall this is good and makes a lot of sense. There are some specifics that are good to have spelled out instead of each team coming up with a methodology of applying renewable energy for example.
One question I have is what about WEc4 for Cooling Tower Management? I think some credit should be given if the DES is managing their water well, but that is not covered in this document.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11477 thumbs up
January 21, 2011 - 10:35 am
Good point. If that comes up on a project I'd encourage you to query USGBC about it.
Alexa Stone
ecoPreserve: Building Sustainability134 thumbs up
March 25, 2011 - 4:35 pm
FYI for those who were confused about the two sources from USGBC related to DES. This is a response from GBCI....
"The guidance on page 4 in the more recent document, Treatment of District or Thermal Energy in LEED for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance, should take precedence in this case, although following the original approach from page 218 of the LEED Reference Guide for Green Building Operations & Maintenance, 2009 Edition, would also be acceptable and would better respond to the intent of the credit, especially in the case where no other base building systems use refrigerants.
If you are attempting this credit prior to clarification of this matter, you should include this correspondence with your submittal."