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It’s about good IAQ for occupancy
The idea behind this credit is to ensure good indoor air quality (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.) for a project for occupancy. IEQc3.2 can be seen as a belt-and-suspenders credit: even if the IEQc4: Low-Emitting Materials credits are pursued, along with IEQc3.1: Construction IAQ Management—During Construction, IEQc3.2 ensures that the building ends up with the intended result. (Although it’s typical to do so, you don’t have to pursue any...
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13 Comments
IAQ Management Plan - Post construction measures
Dear all,
The LEEDOnline letter template for IEQc3.2 includes a portal to upload 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. Management Plan highlighting post-construction IAQ management practices.
Is this plan different from the one developed for IEQc3.1? My understanding is that either a flush-out or IAQ testing is required, with no need for producing any additional Management Plan.
Many thanks
George, most teams that pursue both IEQc3.1 and 3.2 write one plan that covers both requirements. You can see an example of this above, in our Doc Toolkit. For more background on writing and submitting the plan, it may help to review the steps to earn this credit in the Checklists tab above.
Thanks Tristan!
For the Pre-Occupancy Flush-out option, the LEEDOnline letter template asks for a description of the flush-out procedure (date, airflow rates, temperature, and humidity).
What is the difference between the content of this description paragraph and 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. Management Plan highlighting post-construction IAQ Management practices implemented"?
Are there any post-construction IAQ Management measures other than the flush-out or the testing?
Thanks,
George, to my knowledge there is not any difference, unless there happens to be something about the project that warrants note.
Monitoring Humidity?
I am currently working on a project in southern Colorado (very dry) that is doing a phased flush-out but there is currently no way to monitor interior humidity. Would a narrative describing that the regional climate drove the decision to omit a humidity sensor suffice? Thanks!
Ara, sorry for the slow response here to your question. Did you submit for this credit and what was the result?
IAQ Testing and Furnishings
The Credit Language contains this statement regarding air quality testing and furnishings: "Movable furnishings such as workstations and partitions should be in place for the testing, although it is not required." However, the Checklists resource on this site says, "Furniture and furnishings MUST be installed prior to testing, but are only recommended to be installed prior to flush-out."
I want to be sure we are not missing anything in the credit language. Could someone confirm whether, when pursuing the air testing option, furnishings MUST be in place, or if it is only recommended?
Thanks.
You have it right—it is recommended but not required. If anyone has seen GBCI reject the credit for not following this recommendation, please post about it here!
Phased IAQ Testing?
Is it acceptable to perform air quality testing in phases? The project in question is a 175K sf school designed in 7 zones. We would like to begin testing on half of these zones while test and balance, etc. is still going on in the others. Is this acceptable as long as all items required to be complete prior to testing are complete in the zones being tested?
I don't see any obstacles here—seems consistent with the intent and methods of the credit.
Option 1 flush out - Path 1
Working on a school that will be completed by June 1, moving furnishings in July 1, and people in August. We have the month of June for flush out, hypothetically. We want to chase this credit, but the engineers say the VRF system won't push the volume of air through the system fast enough. First, we don't need to use any special filters for this, right? So it's not a matter of flushing with special filtering, correct? We aren't using Merv13 filtering in this project, we just want to flush out the off-gassing pollutants from finished construciton. Second, if the mech system can't push enough volume through, is there a low cost alternative that still accomplishes the intent of this credit.
A couple more details, the first floor is a contiguous library space with two stack-induced cross ventilation chases with operable windows at the top. The second floor is a series of 6 science labs, each with a room-based exhaust fan. Couldn't we simply use the stack-effect (possibly temporarily fitted with exhausting fans) to power ventilate the lower level, and open the windows and turn on the exhaust fans in the classroom/labs to get the volume we need? The volume doesn't need to go through the mechanical system per se does it? This credit is to simply flush out pollutants in the environment itself, with or without the mechanical system itself? Anyway, those are my questions. Thanks!
You don't have to use special filtering, no.
Regarding getting the volume of needed air in this situation, the typical practice is to use temporary fans or other ventilation systems to require the needed volume of air. There is more specific guidance on this in the Checklists tab above.
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