Our project is a student services center on a 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 questions regarding this credit. 1. How do we determine the number of male occupants and female occupants for the purposes of Water Credit 3.1, 3.2 and 2? Do we use the same criteria and formula laid out in Site Credit 4? And how do we account for short-term visitors to the building (e.g. someone shopping in the student store or stopping in for an appointment or to pick up forms from one of the offices)? 2. What criteria, standards, or assumptions do we base the "daily uses" and "duration of use" per fixture type for each gender on? The reference guide provides tables and criteria for the flow rates of various flush and flow fixtures for determining the base case and the design case, but does not seem to address "daily uses" and "duration." We look forward to your specific direction on these questions.
1. Water use is based on building occupants. For this type of facility, determine the average building occupancy based on visitors and full/part time staff. Use this number in water use calculations. The ratio of male to female occupants can be estimated based on student population data or use 50:50. Outline any assumptions made about visitor use in the project narrative. Visitors use restrooms, so they should be included in water use calculations (though you may assume a lower use rate per visitor than per staff member). The exclusion of short-term visitors from Site credit 4 does not apply. However, short term visitors are not required to be included in the number of occupants that use showers (if provided) nor in the related LEED calculation. 2. There are no set criteria for determining daily use or duration of use. Applicants can estimate both of these items based on the project and occupants. Water audits by the college or similar facilities may provide a reference for the applicant, but are not required for LEED documentation. The LEED Reference Guide provides some sample calculations of fixture uses per day and duration that you can use as a guideline. These assumptions are based on full time occupants, so you will need to make assumptions for part time occupants. Daily uses and duration must be the same in both the Baseline and Proposed Cases. Applicable internationally.