The calculator says that acceptable irrigation types for landscaped turf grass is only drip and fixed spray but allows rotors in the drop down- can rotors be used or not - Kind of urgent
Thanks
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Kimberly Schlaepfer
Sustainability Coordinator LEED AP O+M, BD+C75 thumbs up
October 26, 2015 - 5:31 pm
Hi Robyn,
The calculator is very unclear, however, because all irrigation types are checked as appropriate for turfgrass in Table 4 I would assume that the rotor is also appropriate. Because it has the same efficiency as many of the other irrigation techniques it would seem odd for them to un-include the rotor. In previous versions of LEED rotors were allowed to be used for irrigation, and I don't believe that has changed. I think the calculator error was merely an oversight.
Hope that helps!
Robyn Dowsey
OwnerEco-Build Strategies LLC
16 thumbs up
October 27, 2015 - 3:01 pm
Thank you Kimberly
Unfortunately we still have interpretation issues
The water sense calculator says that non-irrigated turf still must be shown within irrigation type
if you put in the fixed-spray which is the only option allowed for non-irrigation and use the rotor heads as you have suggested for the irrigated areas then irrigated becomes less impactful than non-irrigated
This seems to be the opposite of what we want teams to do
Here is a better explanation:
The reference guide and the calculator seems to dictate that there are specific types of irrigation allowed for different plant types for both irrigated and non-irrigated areas
In our case the turf grass areas are both irrigated and non-irrigated areas
The irrigated turf area is using rotor heads listed as an EU of 70 and the non-irrigated area if we use the assumption box must show fixed spray with an EU of 65. In addition, the rotor heads being used on the project are not listed in the appropriate irrigation types in landscaped areas as an option - only fixed or micro spray but is an option in the calculator drop down options so we are confused what to use.
Since the reference guide specifically (page 261) states that no area that is landscaping can show zero water use, my thought would be to pick another approved option with a 70EU but either way that would make the non-irrigated area more water intensive than the irrigated area which doesn’t make sense.
Ben Stanley
Senior Sustainability ManagerWSP - Built Ecology
LEEDuser Expert
250 thumbs up
November 3, 2015 - 1:55 pm
It looks like the Watersense Water Budget Approach requires that non-irrigated turf areas be listed as using the fixed spray to account for the possibility that the property is sold and that irrigation could be subsequently installed. Since the rating system adopts the tool for the prerequisite, we're also adopting the required WaterSense methodology. Here's the language from the Water Budget Approach document from WaterSense.
"If irrigation systems are not being installed on the site by the builder, an irrigation type still must be designated for each plant type and any pools, spas, or ornamental water features. For low water-using trees, shrubs, and groundcover, standard drip irrigation is assumed. For all other categories of vegetation, fixed spray irrigation is assumed. This is to account for the type of system that might be installed after the home is sold. For the same reason, if irrigation systems are only installed on a portion of the landscape (e.g., only on turfgrass but not on shrubs), the remaining portions of the designed landscape must use the same assumptions."
The Water Budget Approach mentions rotor irrigation specifically and so I don't see any issue with applying that irrigation type to the irrigated turf grass, despite the fact that rotor irrigation isn't listed in Table 4.
Here's a link to the Water Budget Approach http://www3.epa.gov/watersense/docs/home_final_waterbudget508.pdf