Single User Group, Partial Fixture Renovations, Usage Inequality

Complicated question Joanne - I'm struggling a bit to even understand the issues at hand. I think the key is that you should not feel limited by the template - what matters is accurately representing fixture water use in your building. That may mean creating separate Fixture Groups for the male and female populations of a given area. As to the question about the vacant space - no need to account for it separately if that space is served by a shared fixture location. What matters is how many people use a given fixture, how often, and how much water that fixture uses. Vacant space is only addressed separately if it contains dedicated fixtures. I'm not sure if I helped at all or made things worse! Dan

Joanne, it sounds like you've already done a fairly thorough job of conducting a water fixture inventory of the building. One option would be to have a single fixture usage group for the entire building and include weighted average flow and flush rates for each fixture type. This is allowable because all occupants in the building have access to all fixtures in the building. Think of it like a pool of fixtures and any occupant can use any fixture they wish at any given time. If you'd like to try it this way, you would need to provide a detailed narrative (in addition to the WEp1 Credit Form) that summarizes the building fixtures and their installed flow/flush rates. Then you would need to map out the calculations you would use to come up with a weighted average flow or flush rate for each fixture type. Include a separate summary table that lists the weighted average flow/flush rate for each fixture type and make sure that this table matches the data you enter in the Flow Fixture Data and Flush Fixture Data tables on the Credit Form. Finally, make sure you include a manufacturer cut sheet for each fixture that has an installed rate that is higher or lower than UPC/IPC standards. This documentation will help support the data points that you use in your calculations to determine the weighted average flow and flush rates. Throughout all of this, I'd recommend you maintain a 50/50 gender ratio for your fixture usage group and make sure that you account for potential occupancy of your vacant tenant space according to the Reduced Occupancy Guidelines.