Pre-Design

To reduce cooling loads, use overhangs, lightshelves or fins, courtyards, and lightwells to block high-angle summer sun and low-angle morning and afternoon sun. These strategies also reduce glare and can improve daylighting by reflecting it deeper into the building.

To reduce heating loads, use daylighting strategies in tandem with passive solar heating strategies, such as using materials with greater thermal mass and orienting the building for maximum solar gain.

Focus on optimizing building orientation. Look for opportunities to optimize the glazing on each orientation while accounting for varying heat gain and lighting angles. When selecting a site, look for potential obstacles to daylight such as shading from neighboring buildings, vegetation, and topography.

When selecting windows for maximizing views, consider also using operable windows for natural ventilation. This can contribute to credits EQp1: Minimum Indoor Air Quality Performance and EQc2: Increased Ventilation.

All compliance path options may require both the architectural and engineering teams to take some time in addition to project management to review the ASHRAE prescriptive checklists, fill out the LEED Online submittal template, and develop the compliance document.

Some rules of thumb to reduce energy use are:

Don’t plan on using onsite renewable energy generation (see EAc2) to make your building energy-efficient. It is almost always more cost-effective to make an efficient building, and then to add renewables like photovoltaics as the “icing” on the cake.

Remember that the ASHRAE 90.1-2004 mandatory provisions and prescriptive and performance requirements are a starting point for energy efficiency. Plan to exceed these to earn points under EAc1.

A poorly designed envelope with a high-tech HVAC system is not, on the whole, efficient or cost-effective. Start with building orientation and passive design features first when looking for energy efficiency. Also look at envelope design, such as energy-efficient windows, walls and roof, before looking at HVAC and plug loads. HVAC may also be a good place to improve performance with more efficient equipment, but first reducing loads with smaller equipment can lead to even greater operational and upfront savings.

If you registered before 2007, you have a lower threshold and can follow the AHSRAE 90.1 2004 prescriptive compliance path. You do not technically have to earn any points in EAc1.