Hi,
we are currently working in a LEED certification of a new office building, and considering the upgrade to LEED v4.1.
In what relates with energy performance we are dealing with a huge drawback: from 11 points in LEED v4 to 2 points only with LEED v4.1 (exactly the same building, with the same occupancy patterns and the same energy systems)…
This result impacts strongly the Owner ambitions in what relates with the certification level. Although it is obvious that improvement is always possible, we feel we are already doing (almost) everything we can to optimize energy usage: reduced lighting power densities + dimming control, high efficiency chillers and boilers, optimized AHUs and pumps control (using VSD), adequate shading devices and glazing with low SHGC, PVs covering 50% of building roofs…
Such a difference between the two LEED versions is difficult to understand, not usual in previous transitions and very hard to explain to building owners and developers.
Is anyone also dealing with this scenario? How are you facing it? Any particular strategies?
Regards,
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5906 thumbs up
March 4, 2020 - 4:59 pm
Our clients are using v4. The stringency of the code improved significantly and the metrics have changed so the strategies need to change. Hard to say what they should be as they are different depending upon the situation.
Alara Brinton
9 thumbs up
March 5, 2020 - 11:38 am
You could register under LEEDv4.0 and swap out certain v4.1 credits rather than adopting v4.1 in full...that might help you achieve additional points elsewhere, while still following the v4.0 Min Energy performance requirements. For our CI project we swapped a few credits such as low emitting materials, as there were threshold changes etc that we could benefit from. We are also hesitant with adopting v4.1 in full for the difficulty in achieving energy points.
Randy Scott
May 17, 2021 - 6:30 pm
It is important to note that LEED v4.1 is not a change to the full version, but a gradual update of all LEED rating systems, starting with existing buildings.