Schematic Design

This prerequisite only includes core water uses—bathroom lavatories, water closets, urinals, showers, kitchen faucets and pre-rinse sprays. Janitors’ sinks, pot fillers, and tub faucets can be left out as they are used to fill containers with a fixed water volume regardless of the flow rate. "Kitchen sinks" includes all sinks in public or private buildings that are used with patterns and purposes similar to a sink in a residential kitchen. Break room sinks would be included; commercial kitchen sinks are not included.

The baseline for commercial lavatory faucets has been changed in LEED 2009 to 0.5 gpm.  The previous baseline for commercial lavatory faucets was 2.5 gpm. Take note of this more stringent requirement compared with earlier versions of LEED.

Determine user groups for the various fixtures as not all occupants may be using all the fixtures; for example, employee restrooms and customer toilets in a retail store will have different use patterns.

For Core and Shell projects where the

Hiring an acoustics consultant will add a cost, but can be a worthwhile investment in achieving this prerequisite. Hire a consultant as early as possible in order to incorporate recommendations cost-effectively.

Include acoustic performance goals early in the design process to help keep this prerequisite cost-effective.

For projects attempting EQc9 and those running RT calculations, an acoustics consultant is recommended.

Although reverberation time measurements can be taken after construction to show prerequisite compliance, this is a risky path because a redesign might be the only way to attain the prerequisite and could prevent LEED certification.

The reverberation time compliance path depends on the size of the classrooms and core learning spaces. Rooms smaller than 20,000 ft³ will not have to run any calculations and will find it much easier to meet the prerequisite requirements.