Regarding Cooling Tower Water Use

Nagaraj Sankar

LEEDuser Basic Member

2 thumbs up

October 11, 2023

Hi,

In our LEED V4 BD+C Core and Shell project for a 12-story office building, we modeled a water-cooled chiller in the base case (As per ASHRAE 90.1 - System 8). However, in the design phase, we has been use a VRF (Variable Refrigerant Flow) system instead of a cooling tower. Can we pursue an alternative compliance path, such as "No cooling tower," to earn points in the cooling tower water use category?

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LEEDuser Basic Member

8 thumbs up

Thu, 10/12/2023 - 05:42

The thing we also struggle with, sadly, there are no more options for " No cooling tower". Pilot credit was closed beginning of the year and the Option 2 in v4.1 was exchanged for another.
In one of my previous posts I had someone explain to me that only way to go is to either use one of the Addendas of the v4.1 in which the Option 2:"No cooling towers" was, which is only possible for projects registered before April 23. 2023, and the other option is, to substitute all water credits with Pilot ACP "Whole project water use".
Maybe you can find the post and the explanation with little search on this site, hope that helps. Good luck :)

Dave Hubka

Practice Leader - Sustainability

EUA

LEEDuser Expert

510 thumbs up

Thu, 10/12/2023 - 12:53

I agree completely with Azra's comment. To add on, we have pivoted over to the 'Whole Project Water Use Reduction" alternative compliance path. Much success on this one IF there is no permanent irrigation system, no cooling towers, and no process equipment.

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