Water Credit 3 - Interpretation Request Our project is a student services center on a community college campus in California and includes a student store, staff offices, counseling centers,testing rooms, etc. There will be some full and part-time staff as well as various students temporarily occupying the building to take care of student business or shop at the student store, etc. We have reviewed the relevant pages in the reference guide, the CIRs, and the calculator and have not found answers to our question regarding this credit. We are wondering which faucet type (regular or metering) and corresponding flow rate requirement from the Energy Policy Act we should be using as the baseline for the sinks in our building. With some sinks, such as kitchen sinks, it seems obvious. Kitchen sinks are never metered so using the regular faucet with 2.5 GPF as the baseline makes since. Lavatory sinks on the other hand are sometimes metered and sometimes not metered, so we don\'\'t know which to use as our baseline. There is no code requirement in our area requiring that metering faucets be used on lavatories in our building type. Nor is this standard practice. We are however putting them in in order to reduce water use. Because there is no code requirement and because it is not "typical", we propose using the regular faucet (2.5 GPM) as our baseline and not the metering faucet (.25 gal/CY) as our baseline. The design case example in the reference guide (see page 89) uses the regular faucet as the baseline. Which we use makes a difference in the water savings achieved. We very much appreciate any assistance and insight you can offer. Let me know if you need additional information from us. Thank you, Kathleen Smith
The LEED 2.0 Reference Guide states: "The baseline case is calculated in the same manner as the design case except that [for the baseline case] ALL fixtures are assumed to be standard fixtures that comply with the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Also, [in the baseline case] automatic sensors are not used on any fixtures and there is no gray water use." Furthermore, the LEED 2.0 Reference Guide shows a conventional lavatory flow rate to be 2.5 GPM for baseline calculations, which is the value you should use in your baseline calculations. For the design case, use the flow rates documented in manufacturer\'s literature. Note that Table 4 has a column for "Auto Controls" to incorporate your metered flow controls for the design case. Applicable internationally.