PI Form 3 - Occupant and Usage Data

Emmanuel, I would probably count the utility and technical rooms as "other" and the showers as supporting the office and/or service area. I don't see there being one "right" answer to this situation though—I wouldn't sweat it too much.

Dale,
The Daily Average Transient is used to calculate the water consumption over the course of the year for WEp1 and WEc3. With these occupancy numbers rough estimates are fine - you don't usually see big changes in the water performance (% savings) if you have a FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories. of 25 or an FTE of 100. The flow rates of the fixtures have a much greater impact.

Using cowboy math for just the transients from your training class, here's one way to estimate it:
- Assume 5 days/ week for 52 weeks = 260 days of operation.
- If the training class is once a month, and average attendance is 50 people, that's 600 (50 x 12) transients over a year.
- Average those 600 peoples over the days of operation, 600/260=2.3 average transients per day. Rounded up it only adds 3 to your Daily Average Transients.
- If the class was once a week it would be (50 x 52)/260 = 10 transients per day on average. Add that to your 3 deliveries, and you could be at 13 Daily Average Transients.

Sound reasonable?

Sounds very reasonable. Thanks for your help.

I also have a question regarding daily average transients. I have read a few different interpretations of what this number is supposed to be, and I want to be sure that for our case, we're calculating it correctly.
Our project is a new academic/classroom building at a University. Our peak transient number is 1100 which represents the number of students/visitors in the building at the busiest moment of the day.

For the daily average, do we calculate:

A) What would be the average number for a typical moment in the day when the building is occupied?
or
B) What is the total number of transients visiting the building throughout the day, on average

also, to calculate this average number, the explanation on the form says it is the "daily average per day calculated on a yearly basis." so, considering we have very different occupancy numbers during the school year as compared to over the summer, do we take an average of our number for all 365 days, or just for the months when school is in session?

Thanks very much for any feedback!

Libby - how did you resolve that last question regarding the average per day on a yearly basis vs. the school/year summer? I'm facing the same problem. Thanks.

Kay - In PIf3 are you selecting "non-standard occupancy patterns" which gives you the Complex Occupancy table or are you selecting "standard occupancy patterns" which gives you the Simple Occupancy table?

You might consider counting Exhibitors as Transients/ Visitors, and Attendees as either Transients/Visitors or as Retail customers. (For water calculations you'll probably need three different fixture groups: Convention Ctr Staff, Exhibitors, and Attendees.)

For trip reduction, the question is whether Exhibitors are counted as FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories. staff who need to be surveyed for SSc4, or as Transients/ Visitors who don't. At the EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. SSc4 page, note that hotel guests are considered visitors and typically not surveyed, so it sounds like exhibitors would be transients as well.

Depending on which version of the referece guide you have, the text on pages 29 - 30 addressing "Accounting for Diverse Modes and Populations" may have been revised by addenda:
http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=19228

Does that address your issue?

Sorry, Michael—I have not seen this problem. I'd try calling GBCI.

Michael, if you haven't heard back from GBCI yet, maybe I can help. To which form are you referring?

I got ane-mail yesterday saying the problem was fixed - and it is. Thanks for the offer!

One thing that helped me understand this form was to enter some test occupancy numbers, save and print the form, and then open the credit forms for SSc4.2, SSc4.3, SSc4.4, and WEp1. If you enter recognizable numbers in the PI Form 3 (instead of something like 100, 50, 100, 50, 50) you can see how those numbers gets carried over to the other credits and used in the calculations. The footnotes on the form help a lot, but may not explain it completely.

Transients have separate columns for Students/Visitors and Retail Customers because those two groups have different water use assumptions in WEp1. Retail customers are assumed to be in the building for shorter amount of time, so use restrooms less than Visitors who are assumed to be in the building longer, but not as long as an FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories. person. (You can find this out in the Water Use Reduction Additional Guidance document http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=6493 )

With Simple Occupancy selected in the form, the first row of the PIf3-3 Total Daily Occupancy table is “Peak,” which you can think of as the number of transients in the building at the busiest time of day (say, lunch hour). Note that the total of this row: Students/Visitors plus Retail Customers is what gets carried into the SS credits for getting the number of bike racks.

Daily Average is confusing. It should probably say “Average of daily total transients.” Assume an average, typical day (not a slow or unusually busy day). If you counted every transient visitor and every transient retail customer who walked through the door, those numbers are what you enter in the Daily Average row. Those two numbers get carried into WEp1 to calculate how many toilet flushes and sink uses occur on an average day for transients.

In your case, Visitors are probably people coming to visit the offices on floors 2 thru 4 and Retail Customers are coming to the ground floor. The C&S Appendix 1 has a default of 0 Transient Visitors for general office, which makes little sense to me, so you’re safer estimating some number of office visitors (maybe 1 per 500 gsf? 400 gsf? Make a guess – is it a law firm or a call center? A medical office assumes 1 visitor per 330 gsf of floor area, so that’s a helpful comparison.) If it’s Core and Shell retail assume General Retail at 1 customer per 130 gross sf. Ex: 10,000 sf retail / 130 = 77 customers.

Malwina, I don't understand your question—possibly because I'm not famliar with that standard. What is the "norm"?

Don't use "rentable" (floor) areas calculated by BOMA/ANSI Z65.1 for PI Form 3. The LEED Form is setup to use floor areas as determined by ASHRAE Standard 62.1.

The reasons not to use it are explained further below in my description of the differences between Z65.1 and LEED credit area calculations.

I should note, that although Z65.1 is not required for PI Form 3, you will run into Z65.1, oddly enough in the LEED for Healhcare standard under the Site credit 9.1, Areas of Respite.

Why a rentable area calculation method is a requirement for a whole building rating system is a mystery to me. It is an unnecessary complication. The Site calculations should be based on standard architecturally calculated GSF (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.)).

Okay, this is what I know about Z65.1.

ANSI/BOMA Z65.1-2010 is an updated version of a standardized method used by owners to calculate rentable (lease) space areas in a building.

The problem with using Z65.1 is that the areas calculated would not match up with the way areas are calculated in the LEED credits. EAc1 uses total conditioned floor area, including entire walls. EQp1 & EQc8 use net interior area.

Z65.1 splits interior walls among leased spaces, and can split an exterior wall if glazing is dominate -->50%-- on a wall. In other words, Z65.1 calculates areas that fall in-between what the LEED credits use.

ANSI/BOMA Z65.1-1996 is the area measurement method most architects are likely familiar with.

ANSI/BOMA Z65.1-2010 includes the "legacy" measurement method used in the 1996 version as Method A. It also adds a new measurement option called Method B.

Try entering 1 even if the reality is 0. The form doesn't seem to accept 0 as an answer.

Did this and it didn't work either. I am at a total loss. Checked all my data, we are a convention center so FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories.'s are fun to start with. This is the second project I have certified so I know my work is correct. We don't have residence nor do we operate 8 hours a day five days a week.

I am at a loss.

As Robert suggested enter 1 for the part time value and add 1 in the part time hours.
There is a glitch in the form and LEED Online knows about it. According to the note I got from them, I should wait until about March 1, 2013 to upgrade to the newest form. If I can't wait (and I cannot) I am to enter the 1 values in place of zeroes and check the special circumstances box. Explain what you fudged in that box and submit.

Other users values may cause different issues, so try entering all ones and see if the form reads as compliant. if that works, change one value at a time until you find the holdup.

Generally you should be consistent across all credits. However so long as you show your work and can explain discrepencies, I have found that sometimes numbers for IEQc8 credits can have minor variations.

Additional information to the question above: Complex Occupnacy does not show up until you check the box "Actual, historical and/or projected project occupancy does not include nonstandard occupancy patterns."
Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

I'm working on this too, and it seems like we need to create our own spreadsheet. I'm going to re-create the table from the 'simple occupancy' option in a new excel file and add additional rows to include my extended hours that are consistent with the BOP (we have some floors open for night classes). Sum total 'person-hours', divide by 8, to get FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories..

ie. If 50 people occupy building for 10 hours, than LEED FTE =62.

HOWEVER, my HUGE concern is that this number no longer matches the Energy Star SEP,which reviewers seems to take as the absolute measurement for the entire project! Because my complex occupancy calculation takes into consideration visitors and 'default' occupants for vacant spaces.

This LEED FTE does not accurately reflect the amount of 'real' people who will use restrooms or require hvac, so I'm not sure why I just did this.

Frankly, I have received more comments on this form than any other credit or prerequisite and none of the information seems relevant to LEED performance. Any suggestions on the best way to give feedback on these forms so that they are more user friendly in the next version of LEED? beyond the obvious 'feedback' button on LO.

are there any reviewers on this forum who can tell us why this form is so important if the data is totally false and not based in REALITY?

Does Plf3-1 exist?
Does a sample?

Hi Zach,
We have done that in several Core & Shell projects and it works. Just make sure you explain your situation in the "additional details" box on each LEED form related to the Tenant Lease Agreement".

Hi Kenneth,

Generally mechanical space is considered "unconditioned." but in this case, what are the "unit heaters" used for?

Thanks for your reply Emily! Generally the unit heaters are to protect mechanical equipment and piping from freezing temperatures.

Hi Kenneth,

So, would these units normally be off, most of the time? 

I do not have specific experience with this sittuation, so I cannot say for sure. I think if they are only turned on when the pipes may freeze, I would consider that "unconditioned space." However, a reviewer may disagree.

Anyone have experience with this?

I believe the heaters would be controlled by a thermostat that would turn them on when the temperature went below a certain level.

I've responded to this question in the MRc4 forum. Please continue the conversation there.

There's no need to enter the male to female on PI Form 3 but you can do so with WEp1, which should be the only affected credit. If the ratio is not 50/50 then the review team will be looking for a narrative along with that prerequisite to explain why the ratio isn't 50/50.

There are a number of discussions about FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories. and sample calc on the NC SSc4.2 page, at the topic "Calculating FTEs" and also in the Reference Guide for that credit. In a nutshell, 4 people working a 6 hour shift would be an FTE of 3. (number of people times number of hours worked in a typical day, divided by eight. 4 * 6 / 8 = 3)

No, you can group those all as office. If you have very different program uses like office and retail, or retail and housing, those would be listed separately.

I also have similar problem. Our project team advise that there should be no FTEs in warehouse area, however, as indicated in Guidebook, default value for warehouse FTEs is 2500 sqf per occupant. If i input zero FTEs in warehouse area(distribution), does it make sense?
Thanks!

Mario, pleae see Tim's reply below.

I think that it makes sense to list out important space types separately in the school like classrooms, cafeteria, gym, laboratory, and adminstration. These areas can have unique implications for the project application and so would be good to list.

For the days of operation, I would choose the set of days that best represent typical function of the school and then include a narrative along with the Form that explains how there is a small group of occupants that use the building year round.

St. Paul's in New Hampshire? Beautiful campus!

I would put 535, with one big caveat. This number will show up in other places, possibly SSc4 and WEp1 forms. When it shows up in those forms, if it causes trouble, I would consider changing it. But for now, for PLf3 itself, it seems odd to say there are 0 students.

If I could remember the details of where this number will show up I might have more tailored advice... sorry... but just keep it in mind and come back to this question if you need to.

Correct, you don't want to use code or HVAC load occupancy numbers for FTEs in LEED forms - just what you expect or estimate to be the number of people using the building. As long as it is reasonable, and you "show your work" it shouldn't be a problem.

Shannon, I would agree that the daily average number will be higher than the peak FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories., since the peak number is only a moment in time. In terms of how to calculate that, I think it's highly dependent on your project specifics—can you be more specific about any difficulty with this number?

How do we calculate retail customers for LEED for NC Retail for a university grill/restaurant?

The retail supplement for WEp1 says, "If neither data nor projections are available, use the default FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories. calculation methodology in the Submittal Template." However, we cannot find this anywhere in LEED Online.

Otherwise, I guess we'll use the Core and Shell default occupancies.

Other ideas?

I am having the same problem...

Ok, figured out my problem. I had not selected "None" in the drop-down for "Lease Type", by leaving it blank, or not selecting a choice, the form is considered incomplete.

Hope this helps.

I am having this same problem and i have double/triple checked that all of the categories have been filled in. We submitted the project for LEED in September and we are now about to re-submit. However, this credit still shows as incomplete. When we originally submitted we listed a small space as exempt in the "exempted space" table on the worksheet, however, based on the reviewers comments we removed this exempted space and are now including it for all credits. But by deleting that space from the "exempted space" table it marks the sheet as incomplete. When we put it back in, it marks it as complete. Should we still list this space in the "exempted space" table even if we are not exempting it from any specific credits?

sorry wrong place