Some portions of the site are irrigated, while other areas are not. Non-irrigated areas include adapted grass,shrubs and trees which are shaded by the building and do not need irrigation. There is also a grassy area which does get irrigated.
How do I enter this into the LOL form? If I enter "0" in the IE column, then the TWA = 0 for that row. Is it acceptable to enter the non-irrigated areas on a separate row and enter IE = 0 to get zero Total Water Applied for those areas?
What documentation would I need to provide to support this? A signed statement from the owner? Irrigation is performed by hose and sprinkler, so I can't show that there is a permanent irrigation system that excludes those areas. Any thoughts?
Dan Ackerstein
PrincipalAckerstein Sustainability, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
819 thumbs up
April 11, 2013 - 2:27 am
Lyle - That's a tough one. The answer to the first part is fairly clear to me - you should definitely include the area of any landscaped area that does not require irrigation due to the nature of the vegetation. In a perfect world, everyone replaces their turf grass with native/adapted vegetation that doesn't need irrigation - the credit certainly should reward instances where that is the case. A detailed site plan showing the various vegetation types would be key to that submittal.
That being said, I'm not sure how to go about documenting an irrigation approach that involves a hose and sprinkler. Assuming there's no water meter data, you'd need to really help the reviewer feel confident that you know exactly how much water you're using with that equipment.
Hope that helps at least a little,
Dan
Lyle Axelarris
Building Enclosure ConsultantBPL Enclosure
64 thumbs up
April 11, 2013 - 1:59 pm
Thanks for your insight, Dan. I’m assuming that Option 2 (theoretical calculations) can be used successfully in this case to demonstrate the usage of irrigation water. I am planning on listing the shaded landscaped areas that do not receive irrigation separately from the irrigated areas in the LOL form. For the non-irrigated areas, I have set IE=0. This is the only way that I have found that I can get zero Total Water Applied (0 TWA) for those areas. Do you think that this approach (described in a narrative) will be acceptable?
As always, thank you for your time, Dan.
William Weaver
LEED Fellow, WELL APJLL
181 thumbs up
July 9, 2013 - 2:08 pm
Hi Lyle,
Hopefully this doesn't come too late to be of use to you. But, regarding the non-irrigated areas, I have had success on prior projects using the methodology you propose (setting IE=0 to achieve a TWA of 0). In the table on the credit template, we simply indicated "non-irrigated vegetation" for the landscape type. No additional documentation was required aside from the landscape plan.
Lyle Axelarris
Building Enclosure ConsultantBPL Enclosure
64 thumbs up
July 16, 2013 - 2:03 pm
Thank you very much, William. That is helpful to this, and future, projects.