I'm working on a child care center project, with many toilet rooms designed for preschool-aged children. Since urinals are not appropriate for this occupancy type, should I consider these restrooms as gender-nuetral restrooms? The Indoor Water Use Reduction Calculator has a note indicating that if the project contains no urinals (which is the case with my project), then I should enter 0% in the "Precent of males expected to use restrooms with urinals" cell (Cell I-16).
Can anyone confirm that this is the appropriate approach for me to take?
Also, should the preschool children be considered Visitors, or should I enter them as "Other"?
Thank you for your assistance.
Emily Purcell
Sustainable Design LeadCannonDesign
LEEDuser Expert
371 thumbs up
July 9, 2021 - 2:41 pm
Yes, you should set the % of males expected to use restrooms with urinals to 0. That will cause the rest of the form to assume all male occupants use the WC on every restroom use. It's probably also easiest to consider the children a separate user group (worksheet tab) to account for adults having different use patterns and/or different fixtures.
And as for visitors/other, that determines the number of daily uses. I think "visitors" assumes 0.5 WC/lav use per person per day, while "FTE" is 3 WC/lav uses per person per day plus kitchen sink and shower uses. "Other" would let you set a custom number of daily uses. That's probably your best option so you can set a number of uses based on the typical length of time a child spends there and make sure their kitchen sink / shower uses are zero.
emily reese moody
Sustainability Director, Certifications & ComplianceJacobs
LEEDuser Expert
476 thumbs up
July 9, 2021 - 3:07 pm
One additional note: There should be some specific guidance in the credit language (Rating System Variations) that applies to Schools projects on how to document/calculate the student population for elementary kids and staff. This also assumes that the project is registered under BD+C for Schools (not the regular BD+C).
Summer Minchew
Managing PartnerEcoimpact Consulting
LEEDuser Expert
170 thumbs up
July 12, 2021 - 8:14 am
Adding a few thoughts here as well, based on some previous GBCI guidance specific to preschool fixture use. 1) Preschool students should be considered regular building occupants. As Emily suggests in the thred above, breaking students out as a different fixture use group than adult occupants (for example 3 groups: adult staff, students age 3+ and students age 2 and under) is a good idea because... 2) You can modify the default uses to exclude fixture use for children under 3. Be sure to include a special circumstances narrative to describe the occupancy and fixture usage based on the ages of the student occupants. Describe the assumptions, such as children under 3 would not use the flush fixtures as they wear disposable diapers.
Dave Hubka
Practice Leader - SustainabilityEUA
LEEDuser Expert
530 thumbs up
July 12, 2021 - 8:23 am
Great posts Emily, Emily, and Summer! thumbs up all around!!
I just added some 'cheat sheet' notes to my reference guide.
Students under 10 years of age are not included when determing the number of bike racks & students under 3 are not included when completing the Indoor Water Use Reduction calculations.
Lyle Axelarris
Building Enclosure ConsultantBPL Enclosure
64 thumbs up
July 15, 2021 - 7:21 pm
Thank you everyone for the excellent feedback.
Emily, one point to clarify - this is not LEED Schools since it is not a K-12 facility. It is a daycare center for children age 6 weeks - 5 years old (pre-K). Since posting the original comment, I have received more occupancy information. The average length of stay for the children is 10 hours/day! Given that lenght of stay, my thought is to count each 3-5 year old child as using WC and lavs the same amount as an FTE. Does that sound reasonable to you?
emily reese moody
Sustainability Director, Certifications & ComplianceJacobs
LEEDuser Expert
476 thumbs up
July 15, 2021 - 8:09 pm
Ooh, right, da babies. <3
I think that's reasonable; even 3 can be too early for many kids to use the potty like a regular person, so it may even be reasonable to only count some of the 3-yr olds or just count 4-5 as regular users. Some preschools require kids to be potty trained at 3 in order to enroll, so if that's the case for you that's an easier answer. Whatever the reasoning is behind your calcs, be sure to provide a little narrative explaining the logic for the reviewers like Summer noted.
Summer Minchew
Managing PartnerEcoimpact Consulting
LEEDuser Expert
170 thumbs up
February 17, 2022 - 12:34 pm
Adding to the thread with an additional question regarding how to classify daycare/early childhood education center "classroom" sinks. Keeping in mind these projects will certify under LEED BD+C NC not Schools, I don't know if we should reference the LEED for Schools Guidance on classroom sinks which states, School classroom sinks (if used primarily for hand washing) should be classified as public lavatory sinks 0.5 gpm baseline. Unlike in a K-12 school, daycare/early childhood education setting the sinks in the "classroom" more often than not perform soiled utility functions (hand washing after diaper changes) and kitchen sink functions (clean up activities from arts+crafts and in-class dining). So I wonder if anyone has experience with this, should the "classroom" sinks be excluded entirely as a process water (soiled utility hand washing) or included as a kitchen sink with a narrative describing the use?
emily reese moody
Sustainability Director, Certifications & ComplianceJacobs
LEEDuser Expert
476 thumbs up
February 17, 2022 - 12:45 pm
Hey Summer,
The classification may depend on how the kids' restrooms are set up and proximity to the classroom sinks. At my kids' preschool, the class sinks happen to be right outside the kids' restrooms, but the restrooms have their own sinks, so it's a cleaner separation of process water function for them. Not all kids' restrooms have sinks inside them, though. I know in reality, they also use the class sinks for handwashing (combined with the restroom sinks so more kids get through at the same time), but that won't be the case everywhere. In my example, I'd say process, just like for a dr office, spa, etc. You'll probably want to provide a little description of whatever you deem appropriate just to ward off comments.
Summer Minchew
Managing PartnerEcoimpact Consulting
LEEDuser Expert
170 thumbs up
February 17, 2022 - 12:59 pm
Emily - Yes they have lavatory sinks either in the toilet room or just outside of the toilet room used solely for student handwashing. Then they have two additional utility type kitchen sinks in the "classroom." I feel like I want to include them as kitchen sinks because including them better reflects the overall anticipated water-use of the facility as opposed to simply leaving them off the calculator entirely as process. I'll give it a go and write a detailed narrative.