Dear All,
One of our clients is developing an expansion to an existing airport.
The scope of this expansion includes an area of new WCs (around 550 m2), sized to satisfy the needs of the expected occupancy for this expansion zone. However, accesses to the expansion zone can be done via the existing building with which the expansion connects. Therefore, users of expansion can use existing WCs located in the existing building as well as users of the existing building can use the new WCs in the expansion area.
For purposes of the above mentioned credit (Indoor Water Use Reduction) can we perform water use calculations only considering expansion foreseen occupancy and new WCs (i.e., without considering the existing building) ?
Thanks in advance.
David Posada
Integrated Design & LEED SpecialistSERA Architects
LEEDuser Expert
1980 thumbs up
February 12, 2020 - 8:50 pm
Ricardo,
Yes, for your water use calculator, it makes sense to use the number of occupants that will be in the area of the new expansion.
I imagine you will need to estimate both Full Time Equivalent staff (airline employees, airport staff, and retail/ food service staff working in that part of the airport) and also a large number of Transients (airline passengers and flight crews).
It's difficult to get exact numbers, but it's more important to have reasonable estimates that come from the airport management. Small changes to occupant counts don't usually have much impact on the results of the water calculations, so it's not worth trying to be precise.
And yes, you'll also just use the plumbing fixtures in the area of the addition, unless for some reason a group of people would be using restrooms outside of the expansion.
For an odd example, imagine the expansion is a new ticket counter, the public area in front of the ticket counter, and public restrooms. But the employees at the ticket counter all use restrooms behind the ticket counter in the existing part of the building. In that case, you probably need to include the existing employee restrooms in the calculations.
Does that make sense?