-
Got a BAS?
To earn this credit, your project building must have a Building Automation System (BAS)A building automation system (BAS) uses computer-based monitoring to coordinate, organize, and optimize building control subsystems, including lighting, equipment scheduling, and alarm reporting. that monitors and controls HVAC and lighting systems.
The minimum BAS functions for HVAC include monitoring the status of sensors and controlled devices, scheduling equipment off when not in use, scheduling set points and setbacks, and trending equipment status.
The minimum BAS functions for lighting includes scheduling lights to turn off during unoccupied times....
Step-by-step credit help
Got the gist of the LEED credit but not sure how to actually achieve it? LEEDuser gives step-by-step help. Members get:
- Checklists covering all the key action steps you'll need to earn the credit.
- Hot tips to give you shortcuts and avoid pitfalls.
- Cost tips to assess what a credit will actually cost, and how to make it affordable.
- Ideas for going beyond LEED with best practices.
- All checklists organized by project phase.
- On-the-fly suggestions on useful items from the Documentation Toolkit, Resources, and Credit Language.
-
Credit language straight from USGBC
Need to check up on the exact LEED credit language from the LEED Rating System on the fly? LEEDuser includes the verbatim language. Members get:
- Easy access to the official LEED credit language with just a couple of clicks.
- On the jobsite without your bulky LEED Reference Guide? Check up on the credit language details here.
- Credit language content is used by permission of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Your credit-by-credit reference library
Why waste time chasing down referenced standards and supporting resources when LEEDuser links you directly to the ones you need? LEEDuser has gathered all the best tools out there and organized them by credit for easy reference. Members get links to:
- Organizations that can give information or help on a credit.
- Standards or studies that are key reference points for credits and prerequisites.
- Articles that help explain important topics.
- Key documents or references for credit inputs.
- Software tools you can use to run calculations or simulations.
Documentation Toolkit
In the end, LEED is all about documentation. LEEDuser’s Documentation Toolkit saves you time and helps you avoid mistakes with:
- Calculators to help assess credit compliance.
- Tracking spreadsheets for materials purchases.
- Spreadsheets and forms to give to subs and other team members.
- Guidance documents on arcane LEED issues.
- Sample templates to help guide your narratives and LEED Online submissions.
- Examples of actual submissions from certified LEED projects.
19 Comments
Stairwell Lighting Kept On 24/7 - Life/Safety Issue?
Our project building has lighting in the stairwells that is kept on 24/7 for life/safety. This lighting also keeps the glow-in-the dark emergency exit signs charged. All other lighting in the building is on occupancy sensors. Will this situation prohibit the project from being able to pursue this credit?
If it is a life/safety issue then i suspect the LEED review team will allow it (at least we've been successful with this); if not you can try to use the 10% floor area exclusion rule.
Small HVAC unit in multi-occupant Office Building
Our project has about 50 tenants, which in some cases have small cooling unit in specified spaces, such as small data center. Also we to have some unit in staff room in undergrounds floors.
These devices are not interconnected in the BAS. Is the project eligible to achieve this credit?
The intent of the credit is to be able to monitor and control major energy using systems in your building. I would encourage your client to install a simple BAS, something like a series of communicating thermostats, or a daisy chain of DDC cards in the AC units. This will save operating cost in the long run. Does the building have a large central HVAC system that is monitored and controlled by a BAS? Or is the HVAC system a series of package units?
lighting and unoccupied times.
For this credit, what constitutes "unoccupied times" for lighting control systems?
We have a lighting control system that sweeps the building at 7pm to ensure lights in the building are off after-hours and every two hours thereafter. However, the lighting system does not sense when an office, conference room, or the restrooms are unoccupied and will not turn off the lights during technically occupied times of the day. Will this type of lighting system work, or does the system need to sense when every room is empty and switch off the lights?
Thanks for your feedback.
After reading the credit again, I think your existing lighting control panels will be fine. Although it mentions occupancy sensors as potential retrofit strategy for buildings without automatic lighting controls, the intent is to turn off the lights when the building is unoccupied. If the HVAC requirements are also met by a BMS sounds like your team is almost there.
That's good news. It always nice to hear you are on the right track. Thanks for the feedback!
Fan Coil Units
We have 500 Fan coil units in our project but they are not on BMS. Chiller, boiler, AHUs and other HVAC units are on BMS. So my question is should we integrate the FCUs on BMS to achieve this point or not?
If this is a typical office space, the credit requires all of the Fan Coils to be at least scheduled and monitored by the BMS. The intent off this credit:
"To provide information to support the ongoing accountability and optimization of building energy performance and identify opportunities for additional energy-saving investments."
The 500 fans in these fan coils certainly fall within an opportunity for "energy-saving investments".
Thanks Holstrom!
our entity is hotel in which rooms having a master control key. In this condition BMS would required for rooms or not?
Again, I think this is the same as the light questions before, if the AC is running it's using energy. Since this is a hospitality application we don't want to take control from the geusts, but it is valuable to know if the AC is running while the key is at the front desk and no one is using the room.
I know the Trane PTAC has a "Front Desk Contact Point" for low voltage on/off capability. Maybe something like this?
BAS- Lighitng Control for Hotel Spaces
Is it necessary to integrate the entire lighting to BMS such as Hotel lobby lighting, corridor lighting which is always ON (24*7)?
Also should guest rooms lighting integrate to BMS or not? however rooms have control key for ON and OFF.
That's a good question Ashu. I couldn't find anything of consequence in the Credit Interpretation Rulings so I think this is one of those we have to dig a little deeper into the intent of the credit which reads:
"To provide information to support the ongoing accountability and optimization of building
energy performance and identify opportunities for additional energy-saving investments." LEED EB: O&M 2009
Given this, I would encourage your project to incorporate the lighting systems into the BAS. It seems the metering itself is important to the guide and in this case requires any energy use no matter the frequency, 24/7 or intermittent.
Could the hotel benefit from knowing that some number of guests leave their lights on when they check out? It is common in Italy for hotels to shut off the electricity to a room when the key is at the front desk. That would make this seem like a step in the right direction.
BAS Lighting Controls
What level of lighting controls are acceptable for LEED? Do a certain percent of building lights have to be controlled by the BAS or is there some other measure? Maybe this requirement could be met if the BAS controlled only lights in common areas?
It seems like BAS control for only the common areas wouldn't qualify. However, local automatic controls like occupancy sensors would work for areas not controlled by the BAS.
What percentage of the lights in the building need to be either BAS controlled or occupancy sensor controlled? Is there a definite number for this?
Excluding task lighting, you will need 100%.
From our experience, if you have less than 100% tie-in to the BAS you will either need to expand BAS control, use local automatic sensors, or contact the project's review team to see if your level of control will work.
In a project we are working on, two systems (lighting and hvac) are actively monitored and have extensive control systems with allocated staff, end user software, etc. However the lighting system and the hvac system to not talk to each other, are not technically integrated. and staff in separate departments.
has anyone heard of this being a problem in documenting separate robust systems for this this credit? - Thanks!
Jeff,
Your approach should be OK - the EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. reference guide pg 192 says separate automated systems may be used for lighting and for the HVAC systems.
Please register to use the forum.