Meeting Indoor Water Use Prerequisite for Fixtures and Fittings

Can you tell us more about the limitations you have? What country? What flow rates? If people know a little more, they may have suggestions for you that will help or a better example of how to merge your requirements with the LEED program.

We are facing similar difficulties with our project in germany.

The german  Drinking Water Ordinance and VDI6023 do not give certain flow rates. But water exchange every 72 hours is required to minimise risks of microbiological growth in the installation of healthcare projects. There are very strict limits concerning the allowed number of microorganisms which are examined by official body twice per year. Meeting this requirement affects the flow rates depending on assumed usage of the fixtures. We are working on a nursing home; elderly people do not shower that often anymore or are rather washed by a nurse. Therefore we are struggeling meeting 9.5lpm: with that we cannot meet the required water exchange.

Thanks for your input and thoughts on that!

For both circumstances above (UK and Germany), I would contact GBCI directly through this link, under "Certification Question": http://www.gbci.org/contact. Explain the restrictions and provide direct links to the requirements for the project if you can. They may ask you to submit an official Interpretation Request and use it to make a ruling applicable to other international projects that would be required to meet the same restrictions.

Otherwise, I did find the following text in the Reference Guide. It won't solve the whole problem, but may help clarify the scope of the calculations:

• The following fixtures can be excluded for all projects:
  • Janitor sinks
  • Laboratory sinks regulated for medical or industrial purposes
  • Soiled utility room flushing rim sinks
  • Soiled utility room hand-washing sinks
  • Clean utility room hand-washing sinks
• Health care:
  • Surgical scrub sinks
  • Exam or procedure room sinks for clinical use
  • Medication room sinks

Also make sure you categorize the sinks accordingly for public vs private:

• a regular restroom sink would be public (1.9 lpm)
• Patient room sink, and a Patient bathroom sink in hospital or nursing home is private (8.3 lpm)

Also make sure you use the correct default fixture durations and uses. For residents, hospital inpatients, hotel guests, prisoners, or any other residential occupants who use the building for sleeping accommodations, use the default residential fixture usage assumptions (see the table in the Reference Guide under Further Explanation, Default Durations and Uses).

The info above won't answer all of the questions, but may help narrow your questions to GBCI. 

Please keep us informed if you get responses. I'm sure there will be other projects in the same situations.

We contacted the GBCI and had a very positive dialog with senior reviewers. Long story short, due to the special circumstances our project is approved to pursue a holistic, whole project approach to water use reduction.

Water use and hygiene are very important issues in healthcare projects. We highly recommend to reach out to the GBCI if you hit severe difficulties meeting this prerequisite. The team is quite constructive and really helps you on.