Hi Nena

The I-BEAM Audit forms cover three sections of the building's indoor air quality - HVAC systems, building interior and building exterior. This is just a visual inspection conducted using the I-BEAM forms and a walk-through of the building. It must cover all relevant components listed in the I-BEAM forms, and I don't believe sampling is permitted, but even on very large buildings shouldn't take more than a half day. Take a look at the Baseline IAQIndoor air quality: The quality and attributes of indoor air affecting the health and comfort building occupants. IAQ encompasses available fresh air, contaminant levels, acoustics and noise levels, lighting quality, and other factors. Audit Form located under Documentation Toolkit for more information.

Hi Hannah,

Thank you for your feedback! Yes, he has reviewed the form, but I believe the question was whether the audit questions need to be answered for each AHU1.Air-handling units (AHUs) are mechanical indirect heating, ventilating, or air-conditioning systems in which the air is treated or handled by equipment located outside the rooms served, usually at a central location, and conveyed to and from the rooms by a fan and a system of distributing ducts. (NEEB, 1997 edition) 2.A type of heating and/or cooling distribution equipment that channels warm or cool air to different parts of a building. This process of channeling the conditioned air often involves drawing air over heating or cooling coils and forcing it from a central location through ducts or air-handling units. Air-handling units are hidden in the walls or ceilings, where they use steam or hot water to heat, or chilled water to cool the air inside the ductwork. or just the 4 main central fans. For example, one of the categories is Outdoor Air Intake and Dampers in AHU, would the questions in this category need to answered for each AHU?

Hi Jeff

While these IAQIndoor air quality: The quality and attributes of indoor air affecting the health and comfort building occupants. IAQ encompasses available fresh air, contaminant levels, acoustics and noise levels, lighting quality, and other factors. audits can seem overwhelming, I think it's just the shear volume that makes the task daunting and not the general content. Here are some steps that we always take first, in order to make the audit more manageable:
1. Take the online educational modules - I know they are outdated and boring, but they really do familiarize you with the expected audit content
2. Tailor the audit checklist to your specific buildings - if the audit asks for you to examine a cooling tower but your building doesn't have a cooling tower, then remove this section.
3. Do a quick content check and add internal notes directly in the worksheets so that you can have reference to unknown jargon in the field.

These audits are intended to be short (typically take between 1 and 3 hours / building) and just Yes / No answers, with some explanation where there are issues. They are also intended to be completed not by a team of industry experts, but by someone more like a facility manager. Keep that in mind as you are completing these.

For your specific questions, you would want to use the smoke pencil to determine the directional flow of air in those given situations. If the supply air is actually flowing out of the building rather than in to it, then you've got a problem that need to be addressed (also, the intent of this audit is to note the issues, not necessarily deal with them immediately. For an issue like the one I've mentioned, this would require notifying the building engineerA qualified engineering professional with relevant and sufficient expertise who oversees and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in the project building., some additional testing and possibly some outside consultation/contracting. It's ok to list this type of cost for your capital planning in your IAQ report).

Let me know if you need any additional help as you are working through these, and good luck!

Thanks,

Hannah

Hi Tiffany

The audit required for this credit is intended to be a part of a more robust IAQIndoor air quality: The quality and attributes of indoor air affecting the health and comfort building occupants. IAQ encompasses available fresh air, contaminant levels, acoustics and noise levels, lighting quality, and other factors. management program, where teams may measurement and monitoring as desired, but is not an explicit requirement of this credit.

To that end, I don't think you can build a case for the use of the NC air quality test prior to occupancy as the baseline for the facility. The credit requires the team to provide a baseline audit using the I-BEAM baseline audit checklists, generating a report of issues found during the audit and then providing written proof that all low/no cost issues have been resolved within 60 days of completing the audit. Take a look at the resources and documentation toolkit tabs, above, for more information on I-BEAM.

When documenting this credit, you will need to also provide information on the intent to re-audit the building, a description on how occupant communication / complaints are handled and a couple IAQ-related mitigation plans.

Let me know if you have any additional questions,

Hannah

Gloria, that's  correct—there is not a LEED-EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. credit that focuses on IAQIndoor air quality: The quality and attributes of indoor air affecting the health and comfort building occupants. IAQ encompasses available fresh air, contaminant levels, acoustics and noise levels, lighting quality, and other factors. testing.

Hatice, you'll find more information on what is meant about the emergency protocols, and language on describing that, on our SSc3 page. Sorry for the slow response, by the way. I hope this helps.

The I-BEAM survey materials try to address any possible scenario, so you can use some discretion when you conduct the walkthrough. The audit should be fully completed, but if there are questions or areas that do not apply to your project building, you may simply indicate "not applicable". You should identify a member of your project team as the IAQIndoor air quality: The quality and attributes of indoor air affecting the health and comfort building occupants. IAQ encompasses available fresh air, contaminant levels, acoustics and noise levels, lighting quality, and other factors. Manager before the start of your performance period. Make it clear that their responsibilities for this role will not end when the LEED project is finished; periodic inspections should continue to take place after the initial audit is completed. The initial audit must take place during the performance period and any problems that can be addressed at no cost must be remedied immediately; for this reason, you should try to conduct the audit at least a few weeks prior to the end of your performance period so that you leave yourself enough time to correct these problems. It would be acceptable to have multiple engineers audit different floors of the building to save time; however, you must still identify a lead staff person as the IAQ Manager and make sure that they coordinate all of the efforts and collate all of the audit results into a single final report. It would also be a good idea to train each engineer in such a way so that the same methodology is used to conduct each of the audits; this will ensure that a standardized approach is used throughout the entire project building.

Thanks Jason, i do have another question as well.

We working on a commercial building with different tenant in each floor or sharing the same floor, the question is, do we need to do the survey at each tenant spaceTenant space is the area within the LEED project boundary. For more information on what can and must be in the LEED project boundary see the Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs) and LEED 2009 MPR Supplemental Guidance. Note: tenant space is the same as project space. or a random selection?

Besides that,
after identifying the problem , a schedule plan will be put in place (budget and, schedule to repair found issues) and i presume such report need to submit as a prove that we work on I BEAM, am i correct?

Well, the I-BEAM audit is designed to be an analysis of the entire project building, specifically the mechanical spaces, so you need to look at as much of the building as possible. It's not a survey so much as it is a building walkthrough. LEED allows you to exclude up to 10% of your 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.), so you can take that into consideration if you have one or more tenants who are not cooperative.

Yes, you will need to include a copy of the finished I-BEAM audit, as well as a narrative explaining how repairs or other corrective actions were handled.

In regards to the I-BEAM audit, to our understanding, one baseline audit needs to be conducted within the performance period, and on-going audits are recommended to be performed "periodic." Is there a specific requirement or recommendation on how often an audit should be performed as part of the policy or plan language?

No specific requirement, so the project team is free to determine their own definition of periodic. I'd recommend, at minimum, that the audits are performed on an annual basis.

That sounds reasonable. Thank you for the input, Jason.

Hi Michael,

The EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. Rating system is geared toward both the relatively easy (encouraging good practices where the practice does not already exist) and the complex (adding additional analysis to those project teams that already perform basic IAQIndoor air quality: The quality and attributes of indoor air affecting the health and comfort building occupants. IAQ encompasses available fresh air, contaminant levels, acoustics and noise levels, lighting quality, and other factors. practices).

In terms of your more general inquiries regarding LEED and IEQ/IAQ, I don't know much about the history of its development, but I just know what's needed for submittal.

Really the submittal comes down to the following elements:
- the summary report of the IAQ audit results, including a summary of the audit procedures for indoor spaces, exterior spaces, and HVAC systems.
- Then for each protocol pursued, a thorough description of the methods to control pollutant sources (as noted on page 357 of the LRG).
- evidence of a procedure for collecting and responding to occupants’ IAQ-related complaints
- a description of how the IAQ manager executes a periodic inspection program

So to answer the first question (in all hopes):
As the key requirement is to develop and implement on an ongoing basis an IAQ management program, every component must be addressed at some point. The baseline audit should identify key problem areas and then grow from there to be implemented in the on-going maintenance and IAQ inspection program.

So if a representative survey and examination of all components in one HVAC system is finding IAQ-related issues, then the baseline should be opened up to include all of the building's HVAC system components. The summary report would therefore include a thorough description of the audit procedures and findings, followed by an adjusted set of procedures based on the initial findings.