For IEQ credit 6.1 Controllability of Systems - Lighting:
The requirements for patient areas states "to provide individual lighting controls for 90% (minimum) of patients to enable adjustments to suit individual task needs and preferences."
We have a clinic where there are a lot of exam rooms and screening rooms in the facility. Do we really need to allow patients to control lighting in an exam room or does this mean that the room in which the patient is in simply need to have more than one light control such as an exam light to comply with this credit?
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Susan Walter
HDRLEEDuser Expert
1296 thumbs up
January 28, 2013 - 3:00 pm
How long are your patients going to be in the exam and screening rooms? Unless they are dialysis or transfusion patients, they aren't going to be in the exam room long enough to qualify for the control and they really don't need it. The room will likely have an overhead light, exam light and a task light at the sink area. All will have individual switches and all qualify the room for individual controls. It is the docs and nurses who need the controls. They will be in the room for an aggregate amount of qualifying time.
William Kelly
3 thumbs up
January 28, 2013 - 3:05 pm
Thank you. This our first time with LEED documentation. What do you mean by aggregate amount of qualifing time?
Susan Walter
HDRLEEDuser Expert
1296 thumbs up
January 28, 2013 - 3:15 pm
When it comes to patient areas, I look at how long an individual patient is in the space versus the care provider's time in that same room. If the care provider is the primary occupant, then the lighting controls need to be set up for that individual over the patient. In my mind, I aggregate the time individuals are in the room. This to me is "qualifying time" and it is likely my own phrasing. For example, a doctor who is shuttling between 2 exam rooms and their office is spending up to a third of their day in that one room. I think sometimes as designers we lump many individual patients into one generic super patient who is in that exam room 8 hours a day. The reality is that the individual patient is in there for 15 to 30 minutes. What do they need control over on lighting that isn't solved by the wall switch?
William Kelly
3 thumbs up
January 28, 2013 - 3:22 pm
This helps a lot in my understanding of what is required for this credit for the facility.
Thank you Susan.