Hello,
We are working on a historic office building project for LEED New Const. & Major Renovation, and we have restrooms on each floor which are used slowly by the employees. A restroom has multiple WC's and urinals.
Do these restrooms count as Private or Public restrooms?
According to the description we can't decide surely:
Toilets—public D Rate is per water closet and/or urinal. Provide the higher rate where periods of heavy use are expected to occur, e.g., toilets in theatres, schools, and sports facilities. The lower
rate may be used otherwise. 25/35 L/s-unit
Toilets—private E Rate is for a toilet room intended to be occupied by one person at a time. For continuous system operation during normal hours of use, the lower rate may be used. Otherwise
use the higher rate. 12.5/25 L/s-unit
Thank You in advance!
emily reese moody
Sustainability Director, Certifications & ComplianceJacobs
LEEDuser Expert
476 thumbs up
April 20, 2023 - 11:11 am
Those are public restrooms.
Regular projects do not usually have private restrooms - you will only find private ones in residential or hospitatility settings (like hotel rooms, hospital rooms, maybe a CEO's private one, etc.). Otherwise, typical restrooms in most other commercial projects - even single unisex ones - are considered public.
Not sure why this post landed under the EQ Prereq; the WE Prereq for indoor water use may have been a more suitable spot, where you also can find additional input for the calcs. :)
Norbert Harmathy
PhD, MSc. Arch., LEED AP BD+CLEED management
3 thumbs up
April 20, 2023 - 11:23 am
Thanks a lot for the prompt reply! :)
It landed here because we are calculating the exhaust for the restrooms inder MIAQ :)
Afogreen Build
www.afogreenbuild.comGreen Building Consultant
247 thumbs up
May 30, 2023 - 8:27 pm
Hi Norbert,
Yes, agree with Emily.
In LEED guide (page 275) shows how to classify public and private lavatory, that may use to help in this case. LEED states “… private as those fixtures in residences, hotel or motel guest rooms, and private rooms in hospitals. All other applications are deemed to be public.” “If it is unclear whether the classification should be public or private, default to public use flow rates in performing the calculations.”
Best regard – Afogreen Build Team