LEED Certification and Common Green Building and LID Elements
The goal of this assignment is to familiarize students with LEED certification and common green building and LID elements. The tour of the Emera IDEA Building and the Murray Design Building will be helpful in completing this assignment. Several additional documents and links will also be helpful, listed below.
Attachments/Resources: • LEED scorecard spreadsheet (excel version) • The IDEA Project outline (PDF) • Video on IDEA Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL6YhFg6yzQ • ASHRAE Journal Article on IDEA and Design building • LEED credit library: https://www.usgbc.org/credits • Introduction to LEED (PDF) • LEED version 4 Guidelines (as a reference only – no need to read in full)
Questions:
1. Complete a LEED scorecard spreadsheet for the IDEA/Design Building. Neglect the “Innovation” and “Regional Priority” sections for the sake of simplicity. Note that you may lack enough technical detail in some categories to determine the exact number of points. In these cases, do your best based on the available information. [9 points – 1.5 for each of the six main categories]
2. Based on the documents provided and your LEED scorecard, respond to the following questions: a. What level of certification would be awarded for the IDEA/Design Building based on your scorecard? [1 point] b. Which credit achieved the most points in the “Energy and Atmosphere” category? Briefly explain what green building features of the IDEA project contribute to this credit, how they work and why they are advantageous. [3 points] c. Which credit achieved the most points in the “Water Efficiency” category? Briefly explain what green building features of the IDEA project contribute to this credit, how they work and why they are advantageous. [3 points] 3. LEED has a pilot program for credits that could be added to future versions of LEED. Pick a current pilot credit (list available from credit library here: https://www.usgbc.org/pilotcredits). Describe the benefits of this green building attribute and what the requirements are to receive this pilot credit. Do you think it should be included in the LEED scorecard in the future? Why or why not? [4 points] 4. Does the IDEA project include any Low Impact Development (LID) strategies? What integrated management practices (IMPs) are used, and what do they achieve? [4 points]
Evaluation: Submit two files via Brighspace: 1. A LEED scorecard excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) for question 1 2. A document with written responses to questions 2 through 4 (.docx or PDF). This document should not exceed 1000 words. The evaluation is based on correctly interpreting information from the LEED credit library, IDEA project documents and course notes to estimate the LEED scoring and describe the value of various green building and LID elements. Points are also awarded for clear and thoughtful communications. Use APA citations for any references.
LEED
Student Full Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Full Title
Instructor Full Name
Due Date
LEED
Question 2
* Based on the documents provided and the LEED scorecard, the level of certification that would be awarded for the IDEA/Design Building is Gold. The building scored relatively well in most environmental requirements and recorded a total score of 71 points, therefore, earning a gold certification.
* The credit that achieved the most points in the “Energy and Atmosphere” category was “Optimize Energy Performance”, which relates to a building design’s commitment to achieving higher levels of energy performance beyond what is required by industry standard. The IDEA and Design Building meets the recommendations for buildings utilizing TABS: the campus building has a high-performance building envelope system with a model window to wall ratio that has a net sensible cooling load of under 31W/h/m2 (10 btu/h/ft2) and Thermal Energy Demand Intensity (TEDI) of 21kWh/m2/yr. Moreover, the campus building implemented a new geo-exchange system entailing 152m (500ft) deep vertical boreholes. The campus’s mechanical system also includes a heat recovery arrangement consisting of three modular 175kW (50-ton) water-to-water heat pumps that recover heat from cooling areas and uses the energy directly for heating. All campus areas, except the auditorium, are ventilated using Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems (DOAS) fitted with high efficiency filters, energy recovery wheels, heating and cooling coils, and direct drive platinum fans. Furthermore, the building has a 150kW solar photovoltaics system fitted on two roof arrays as well as an 180kWh/100kW battery energy storage system (Smith, n.d.). Despite an increase in energy use in 2019, the building uses 70% less energy than the average campus and, according to the Carrier HAP energy model, it recorded a 55% energy savings when compared to the 1997 Model National Energy Code for Buildings (MNECB).
* The credit that achieved the most points in the “Water Efficiency” category was “Indoor Water Use Reduction”, which relates to a building design’s efficiency in reducing indoor potable water use as well as preserving no and low-cost potable water resources. The IDEA and Design Building is designed to lower fixture and fitting water consumption above the prerequisite baseline in WE Prerequisite Indoor Water Use Reduction. For instance, the campus uses low-flow toilets (4.8 liters/flush) and low-flow faucets (1.9 liters per minute). Moreover, the building’s roof drains collect rainwater, filter it, and store the same in a 25,000-liter fiberglass in the basement of the structu...
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