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An easy credit, if the owner is on board
This credit requires surveying building occupants to find out if they are satisfied with thermal conditions in the building, as defined by the thermal comfort variables defined in ASHRAE 55-2004. The credit costs little or nothing to implement (although it does take some time), and provides important feedback to building owners and operators.
Do it yourself, or get help
If you have the internal staff resources and don’t want to pay for an outside service, you can go with a simple self-administered online survey.
If you want some hand-holding, can afford the (relatively low) fee, and are interested in a more comprehensive occupant survey (beyond just thermal performance) that gives you results in the context of a large dataset, use the service from UC...
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10 Comments
Frequency of survey...
We just received a question from our certification team asking us to clarify the frequency of the comfort survey? Reading the reference guide it states "frequency and survey responding result procedure" shall be provided. We could find no place (CIRCredit Interpretation Ruling. Used by design team members experiencing difficulties in the application of a LEED prerequisite or credit to a project. Typically, difficulties arise when specific issues are not directly addressed by LEED information/guide, Addenda) where the frequency is recommended.
The space is an oncology treatment facility, which by its nature has a very transient user population. It seems unreasonable to survey patients and family on an ongoing basis.
We are considering proposing a 3, 6, 12 or 18 month frequency. We have seen 3 months accepted, but this seems to place a burden on the staff of the space. The 6 month would capture winter/summer seasonal swings, but seems very frequent. 12 months feels more reasonable, but would not capture the seasonal swing. 18 months would capture the seasonal swing but seems fairly infrequent.
This is the first project we have received this comment on (after the point was marked anticipated in the initial review with no comments.) Thanks for your help.
To clarify, we do not see it as unreasonable to include patients and family in the surveys when they are given (all 3,6,12, or 18 months), rather we do not want to survey all patients/families continuously.
Thermal Comfort Survey
For this credit, does the LEED team need to provide the result from this survey? Is there a requirement to survey all occupants in tenant space? LEED EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. IEQ c2.1 states “The survey must be collected from a representative sample of building occupants making up at least 30 % of the total occupants”. Dose this statement apply to LEED CI?
James, there's been some good discussion on this issue over on the forum for the NC version of this credit.
It's our understanding that all occupants must be surveyed or at least have an opportunity to be included.
Since the survey will most likely take place after your certification is awarded, you don't have to provide the results, only commit to doing the survey.
Monitoring system required?
Are you certain this must be provided in addition to a survey for NC and CI projects? The CI reference guide (page 389) states "Analyzing environmental variables (typically by monitoring space temperature and relative humidity) is an ALTERNATIVE APPROACH [emphasis added] to determining if a facility is providing thermal comfort for its occupants..." and later goes on to state, "Even though this credit DOES NOT REQUIRE A MONITORING SYSTEM [emphasis added] in addition to occupant surveying to verify the thermal comfort conditions, it might be beneficial..."
On the small CI project we are helping to get certified, I don't see the owner wanting to go to the expense of sensors in dozens of small offices and exam rooms, spitting out data at 15 minute intervals that would have to be processed and analyzed by someone on their staff. I think they feel that they'd rather rely on the survey results.
Dave,
This is something that the LEEDuser team has come up against as well. We are still working to bring the specifics of the requirements for monitoring systems into focus. While you are correct that the CI Reference Guide clearly states that monitoring systems are optional, the CI credit form provides a check box that must be filled for a point to register in the credit form. A similar check box appears in the NC credit form. I would encourage you to contact the GBCI to request clarification on the requirements, however past experience indicates that "permanent monitoring systems" can be as basic as programmable thermostats that measure temperature and humidity. It may be best to plan for the more stringent approach until you can confirm the less stringent approach via the GBCI.
Has anyone found any more clarity on this? Permanent monitoring system required or not?
There's an addenda item from 7-19-10 that removes the above mentioned paragraph from the RG stating "...even though this credit DOES NOT REQUIRE A MONITORING SYSTEM..."
That's all I've come up with.
The paragraph referred to above, "Even though this credit does not require a monitoring system..." has been removed through the release of an addenda. You can review this addenda item by searching the LEED Interpretation database, found through this link https://www.usgbc.org/LeedInterpretations/LILanding.aspx, for ID number 100000161. When searching be sure to have the "entry types include "Rating System Addenda" and "Reference Guide Addenda".
I tried but cannot get the IEQc7.2 form (version 3.0 of the form) to show the point 'earned' without putting an X in the monitoring system box in question so it seems like a credit requirement to me.
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