Jason:

In principle that would be fine - LEED does not care how your metering is set up, just that you're measuring (and recording) the energy flowing into your building.

My one suggestion is to ensure that the quality of the metering and data logging is good enough. If you're measuring supply & return temperatures and water flows separately, just make sure you're doing it properly and robustly so you'll get accuracy and precision similar to what a dedicated, unified BTUA unit of energy consumed by or delivered to a building. A Btu is an acronym for British thermal unit and is defined as the amount of energy required to increase the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit, at normal atmospheric pressure. Energy consumption is expressed in Btu to allow for consumption comparisons among fuels that are measured in different units. meter would provide.

Mike

John:

This issue can get real tricky real quick, so I'm not surprised it's come up. Before we get too far into the weeds here's a general rule of thumb: if you can find a solution using existing, published guidance then you should try that, as it will minimize your risk of delaying the LEED review.

This rule may sound obvious, but what makes it complicated for your topic is that several pieces of guidance out there might offer ideas or pieces of a solution but they're in different places:

1) ENERGY STAR's rules about how to treat multiple buildings

2) USGBC's rules on multiple buildings, as described here:
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=2326

3) USGBC's rules related to the MPRs, which define which projects are a good fit for LEED itself:
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=2102

So I'd suggest skimming each of these resources and seeing if any pre-approved solution jumps out at you. If it doesn't, then check in here again and we can take a deeper dive.

The historical energy use data of the project building can include three years of consecutive data within the previous six years of the start of the performance period. Energy use data from three comparable buildings must inculde two consecutive years.

To normalize your building's historical data with comparable buildings I would use similar years for both. For example, use 2006, 2007 & 2008 energy data from your building + 2007 & 2008 from three comparable buildings to create a baseline.

Also, LEED Online only asks for one year of energy use data from comparable buildings even though the LEED reference guide asks project teams to gather 2 years of data.

Don't know what's going on with the online calculator.

Thanks for your response David. I should have clarified that we are doing the CaGBC version of LEED EB:O&M, so we don't have an online calculator, we have an offline excel calculator that's pretty buggy and causing some headaches. We'll continue to wait for CaGBC's answer on that though.

Omer, office buildings outside the U.S. can (and should) use Energy Star Portfolio Manager to benchmark their performance.

1. Do international projects still compare with the US average as their baseline EUI? It will not make any senses, so where can I adjust climate data to make sure its comparing with similar weather condition for an international project?

2. What if our building(11F total) has three floors unoccupied which means our total annual energy use will be a lot lower than 100% occupied? Can you deduct the gross floor areaGross floor area (based on ASHRAE definition) is the sum of the floor areas of the spaces within the building, including basements, mezzanine and intermediate‐floored tiers, and penthouses wi th headroom height of 7.5 ft (2.2 meters) or greater. Measurements m ust be taken from the exterior 39 faces of exterior walls OR from the centerline of walls separating buildings, OR (for LEED CI certifying spaces) from the centerline of walls separating spaces. Excludes non‐en closed (or non‐enclosable) roofed‐over areas such as exterior covered walkways, porches, terraces or steps, roof overhangs, and similar features. Excludes air shafts, pipe trenches, and chimneys. Excludes floor area dedicated to the parking and circulation of motor vehicles. ( Note that while excluded features may not be part of the gross floor area, and therefore technically not a part of the LEED project building, they may still be required to be a part of the overall LEED project and subject to MPRs, prerequisites, and credits.) of these 3 floors from total building gross floor area?

Tristan - Do I understand correctly that office buildings outside the US can no longer use Portfolio Manager to benchmark and must now use the calculator? The October update and the current LEED On-line forms appear to indicate that Option 1 is no longer an option.

I've just done a trial run with the calculator but it is telling me N/A. We're close to full points in Portfolio manager with an EUI of 214 but don't appear to meet the pre-requisite (under Option 1 of the calculator) because the adjusted national average for office space is 182. I suspect this is because the underground parking is included in my 214 but not in the 182.

Michael,
That would make guaranteeing a Gold certification significantly harder wouldn't it? No worries, see the USGBC response to my query on the same issue below.
"Good news. Looks like it was just a mix up.
"Thanks for your question about EAp2 and EAc1 for EB projects outside of the U.S. The language stating that Case 1 was not available to projects outside of the U.S. was erroneously included in the Rating System with ACPs. The case IS available to projects outside of the U.S. and the box stating otherwise has been removed from the Rating System.""

For the full post you can go here - http://www.leeduser.com/topic/international-projects-alternative-complia...

Hello S W:

I can start by offering some basic guidance to this, and we can get more detailed if we need to. Let's break this down to the key issues:

1) Keep in mind that if a given building CAN be scored using Case 1, then it MUST be. Since you mentioned that some of your buildings are offices, they cannot use Case 2 as you're proposing.

2) More generally, I recommend scoring each distinct building in a campus project separately because that's the approach most likely to be approved in the LEED review. Some buildings will use Case 1 and others will use Case 2, just like if they were not on the same campus.

Thanks Mike,
That makes sense. The campus is actually a training center so almost all the buildings are mixed use in some way, for example the office facilities also have educational classrooms so its almost at a 50/50 split. In this case do you think I can use the Case 2 calculator and break each building down into the space types that it includes? We are also having difficulty because there is no "Education-University Buildings" space type in the Case 2 calculator. I found a 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 from 7/31/2009 that states the Education K-12 School option can be used instead if the building can be justified as instructional space. So if possible, I would like to break down our Office/Education buildings into "Office" and "K-12 Education."

So as long as each building within our LEED boundary meets the requirement, even if its through different options, it should still be acceptable right? So we will basically have separate documentation for each of our buildings on campus.

Thanks so much!

S W:

This can get tricky, but you're almost on the right track. For each of your mixed-use buildings, think of whether each usage type itself is ratable in ENERGY STAR. The ratable types are listed at this site:

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=eligibility.bus_portfoliomanager_s...

In your example, both office and K-12 are ratable types, so that building can (and must) be scored using Case 1. Try that within Portfolio Manager and it should work; no need to use the USGBC's calculator.

If that doesn't work then something else is going on here and you can check back in.

Ben:

I see some time has passed since your post. If it's not too late for me to help, could you tell me a couple of things:

1) have you looked up ENERGY STAR's official definition of "warehouse" to see how closely that matches your building?

2) where is your warehouse located, and what's the average outside temperature in summer and winter?

Dawn:

Here are a couple of rules-of-thumb that may help clarify your situation:

EAp2/c1 - generally it's OK to use the ENERGY STAR label in the "streamlined path" (documentation shortcut) as long as the label is current, meaning awarded within the 12 months preceding the date you apply for your LEED review. You can also use the ES score corresponding to that label. However, if you want to use a higher ES score that reflects improvements after the label date you would need to provide the ordinary full documentation (no streamlining shortcut).

EQp1 - in EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. any performance period may be extended backward in time up to 2 years preceding the date of your LEED review application. See the introduction of the Ref Guide for details.

John, is this a home you are talking about? I am surprised that you can attempt LEED-EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. for a home.

Assuming that is possible, I don't see how you can cut a corner here, no. If you have a good Energy Star rating you should have an easy time of it, though.

Is this Energy Star for Homes in the U.S. that you're talking about, by the way? I thought it used a HERS IndexA scoring system established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) in which a home built to the specifications of the HERS Reference Home (based on the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code) scores a HERS Index of 100, while a net zero energy home scores a HERS Index of 0. The lower a home's HERS Index, the more energy efficient it is in comparison to the HERS Reference Home., not a 5-star score.

Nell, My guess it that Portfolio Manager will deduct the amount that goes back to the utility from the total amount produced, to land at the amount consumed by the building. You might want to monkey around with the inputs to verify this.

Thanks Jenny, after more reading it does seem like LEED is only interested in solar consumed by the building. I will make sure my numbers reflect that data.

Susan, No matter what option you pursue, including use of the offline calculator, it's necessary to input square footage and energy consumption data into ENERGY STAR in order to generated the weather-normalized source EUI value that then gets plugged into the offline calculator.

Lance,
Have you tried the USGBC EAp2 Case 2 Calculator for buildings that aren't eligible for Energy Star? There is a "LodgingLodging are facilities that provide overnight accommodations to customers or guests, including hotels, motels, inns and resorts. - Residential - Multifamily" space type avaialable there.
The link above didn't work for me just now, but you can also find the excel file linked at:

http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=2084

Lance...how big is your multifamily building? If there are four or more habitable stories, your building qualifies. As Tristan notes, you'd use the offline calculator to performance the energy benchmarking (which incorporates information from the DOE national residential building energy consumption survey - like CBECSThe Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) is a national sample survey that collects information on the stock of U.S. commercial buildings, their energy-related building characteristics, and their energy consumption and expenditures. Commercial buildings include all buildings in which at least half of the floorspace is used for a purpose that is not residential, industrial, or agricultural, so they include building types that might not traditionally be considered "commercial," such as schools, correctional institutions, and buildings used for religious worship. CBECS data is used in LEED energy credits. but for residential).

If you do go forward with this project, know that there are several credits for which compliance in a multifamily building is not straight forward, and you should use GBCI customer service and/or CIRs to get as much advance clearance on alternative compliance paths as possible.

Eddie,

Some thoughts on your issues:

1. Generally speaking, you are not allowed to ignore process loads. You are, however, standardly allowed to normalize them for changes in output production if you have some measurable variable to use (e.g., number of widgets, manufacturing equipment run time, etc). In my experience, occasionally there have been cases where a different approach to evaluating process loads was allowed, but this happened through the 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 process.

2. Within Energy Star, space classifications should generally focus on the main building function and not break out auxiliary spaces, so in your example it would definitely be appropriate to classify the entire are as office. Check out the 2010 LP Guide to Energy Star (http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/evaluate_performance/pm_lp_guide.pdf) and the Energy Star Guidance for Benchmarking Mixed Use Properties (http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=eligibility.bus_portfoliomanager_e...)

Shoko, My first thought is to look at when the meters where installed, and determine if they are even due for calibration yet. In some case, meters are designed to no require calibration for very long periods of time, and for LEED you can simply document that per the manufacturers guidelines, no calibration is necessarily.

Jenny, Thank you for your comment.
After I sent my question, I found in Energy Metering section of online Form they ask only for "annual site energy usage" and for this amount we do not have to include the data of UPS output. Therefore, I believe we can mark "Energy meters are owned by a third party" not to upload calibration reports, in the case we can use utility bill for the amount of site energy usage, which include IT energy as well.
Do you think this is right understanding?
Thank you,
Shoko

Shoko, I think you have the right approach here.

Michael - yes, you've got it. Teams using the offline calculator are intended to eliminate parking area from the benchmarking and EUI generation. I'm not familiar with the CAGBC version of the rating system, but that's the requirement the USGBC version, as I understand it.

We also have a project that is using the Case 2 Calculator. I understand we aren't supposed to include parking in the offline calculator, but do we include the energy for site lighting? Most of our site lighting is separately metered, should we exclude that consumption from Portfolio Manager? Thanks!

Jose, many facilities fall under "other." You can follow Case 2 to comply with this credit.

Does this answer your question?

Jose...this definitely sounds like a Case 2, Option 2 situation. You may be in a bind though because of the newness of the facility, as one of the common approaches under Case 2, Option hinges on incorporated historic consumption data from the facility into your baseline. The other option is to self-identify similar production facilities (maybe this company has several plants that produce cookies and chips?). This is one of the more complex benchmarking situations that project teams face, and usually a team will need to use a 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 to figure out how to proceed.

Jalal - Energy Star has pretty specific guidelines on whether and how to benchmark facilities like this (in terms of including all SF as one building, or splitting them up). I would recommend reaching out their customer service to see if they will allow you to consider this a single facility. If Energy Star allows it, LEED will generally also be okay with treating it as one facility.

Jenny, I did contact EnergyStar and they are specifically clear on how this need to be labled. They are TWO different buildings and two different performances.

The Question is now:
Can we Certify the two buildings (Hotel and Conference Center) with one LEED EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. certification using two different EnergyStar ratings (one per building)?

Does this fall under a campus approach?

Jalal, I think LEED will see these as two buildings. The best source for understanding this is the LEED Minimum Program Requirements supplemental guidance document (you can easily find it via Google).

Jenny, can you respond to a follow-up on your comment about LEED following Energy Star with respect to a single facility?
Our client performs aviation repair under FAA supervision in a secured three-building facility. We plan to compare site energy for EAp2 with other similar facilities client operates in other states. Plant floor areas in each building is generally 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. Each was built separately on separate, but continguous, legal decriptions many years ago but the three have morphed into one, and each does not have all its own utility services. Other shared components are fenced site, parking, purchasing, operations, HR, etc. It woud be far simpler to aggregate and get one certification than to artificially separate everything for three certifrications. Would "Special Circumstances" on PIf2 be the best place to explain all this?

Jalal - If Energy Star says they are separate buildings, it's pretty much guaranteed that LEED would not let you certify them under a single application under the current rules.

Jim - Sounds like you are in a trickier boat, since the facilities have shared utilities. Check out the MPR Supplemental Guidance, and if there's any doubt about your ability to claim them as a single structure, use a 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 to get advance clearance: http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=6473

Both of you might find the USGBC Guidance for Multiple Buildings and On-Campus Projects handy: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=2326

In particular, this PDF will give you the low down on certifying buildings as part of a "master site", which is supposed to offer some efficiencies in pursuing certifications for multiple buildings on a campus: https://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=7987

Thank you all for the great information.

Now is it possible that we fullfill the requirements for EA PR2 with using Case 2 calculator?

Just a reminder, the site comprised of two buildings (a Hotel and a Conference Center) connected by a tunnel (Personell and Utility). The building has one address, one owner, one utility bills, one chiller plant.

What is the Criteria for this option?

I am unaware of any exceptions for past Energy Star scores, all of the language in the reference guide implies data from the actual performance period is needed.

For your second question, all credits have a minimum 3 month performance period, with the exception of EAp2 and EAc1, which has a minimum 12 month performance period. (See bottom of page xix in LEED EB 2009 reference manual.)

Paul, There is one situation under which teams are allowed to use an Energy Star score from a 12-month period that ends before the other performance period dates. This is allows only if a) you have an official Energy Star label that is associated with the score you will be using, AND b) your LEED application is submitted within 12 months of when the official label was issued.

Do you have an official label?

I am working on LEED certifying a high-rise building with a current Energy Star label (current until Mar 2011). They would like a current Energy Star label in 2011 in addition to LEED certification in 2012. I cannot find any LEED documentation of the Energy Star "label" performance period exception Jenny listed above. If the building has an official Energy Star label issued in April 2011, I could use that score for LEED as long as the application is submitted by March 2012?

We are in a similar situation. We have three buildings: two dormitory buildings and one administration building that serves the dormitories. The buildings are separate and completely unconnected. They also each have their own mechanical systems. However, there is only one meter that collects data for all three buildings.

The client has already achieved One EnergyStar label for the three buildings as a whole. In our understanding they should not have been able to do this. Can we proceed with doing LEED EB for the three buildings as a whole using the Energy Star label achieved only a few months ago, or will they have to submeterSubmetering is used to determine the proportion of energy or water use within a building attributable to specific end uses such as tenant spaces, or subsystems such as the heating component of an HVAC system. these buildings and achieve Energy Star scores for each one individually?

Peter, I've never had this come up before, but my hunch is that you would not be allowed to use Energy Star. It seems more likely that you'd need to follow Case 2, Option 1 and use the offline benchmarking tool. Have you investigated that approach? In any event, since this is an unusual situation you may want to reach out to GBCI directly to verify this tactic.

Thanks for the reply Jenny. It just seems logical (to me anyway!) that we should be able to double the variables and get the same results. That way we could continue to use Energy Star in the future to track our electricity and water usage. In any case, I will follow your advice.

Cheers, Peter

Let me know how it turns out. Though logical, my suspicion is that Energy Star sets the size limits because they think small buildings are fundamentally different than the larger buildings that make up their data set, and therefore they just aren't confident that the benchmarking algorithm applies.

I did hear back from Energy Star and they were not supportive of my plan. Yet they did not really say why the data would be skewed and I can't think of a logical reason why the comparisons would suddenly become invalid for an office building smaller than 5,000 SF. I think I will run some test calculations through Energy Star for buildings that are 5K, 10K and 20K SF where I simply double the annual Btus/SF usage, number of occupants and number of computers. If the energy star rating stays the same, I would think that my theory makes sense. In any case, when I use another baseline calculator like the one on buildingbenchmarks.com I get more LEED points anyway, so I really don't care if I can use the EnergyStar calculator. I also have a question into GBCI on this and will let you know what they say.

Rachel,

In my experience project teams in this situation have been allowed to submit detailed records of consumption based on reads of the submeterSubmetering is used to determine the proportion of energy or water use within a building attributable to specific end uses such as tenant spaces, or subsystems such as the heating component of an HVAC system.. Because this is a prereq and you want to be extra sure that your approach is acceptable, I'd recommend submitting a customer service question once your project is registered to clarify that this approach would be a-okay.

How large is the printing center, in terms of the percent of overall square footage? If it's less than 10% and separately metered, you may be allowed to excluded it from your EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. efforts and energy benchmarking.

The printing center takes up about 20% of the building. I guess i cannot exclude it. If there was no printing center and 35% of the building was a college, would I still have to use the Case 2 calculator? How would you go about finding comparable building energy usage for the benchmarking?

That's right, no exclusions if it's over 10%. Even if it didn't exist, and the split was 35/65 between university and office, you still wouldn't be able to get an Energy Star score and would be in Case 2.

As a Case 2, Option 2 project, you don't necessarily need comparables if you can show a reduction against a historic baseline. Have you investigate that approach?

We are investigating that option right now. We are running into difficulties getting the entire building's energy usage data for the past 6 years. As there are about 20 direct metered electricity accounts throughout the building. We created online accounts for each tenant's energy accounts, however these accounts only have approximately 2 years of usage data. It is also annoying that a few of our tenants have moved in within the past couple years. Will we be able to project their current usage into the historic baseline?

Generally projections are frowned upon, but occasionally in my experience there have been a few situations with extenuating circumstances where it might fly. This would happen through the CIR process for sure (I would not recommend trying this without advance clearance), and would generally entail a very conservative approach for the projections.

Also, to clarify, you wouldn't need 6 complete years, but rather 3 consecutive years within the last 6 (plus the 1 year performance period). So, four years total.

Finally, regarding tenants coming and going, you could potentially normalize for changing occupancy rates or types if you have a good handle when tenants came and went and the spaces they occupied.