Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED BD+C: New Construction

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.0, v2 - LEED 2.2, v2 - LEED 2.2

Inquiry

Our project is a hotel and spa in Pine Mountain, Georgia registered as a LEED-NC V 2.1 project. Because the local utility supplier does not yet offer green power contracts, our Client is planning to engage in a two year contract with the Green-e certified Renewable Choice Energy program to provide an offset of 100% of the building\'s energy load. Energy Modeling was not completed for our project; therefore we propose to utilize the LEED-NC Version 2.2 Reference Guide\'s provision for projects without energy modeling. We propose to use the Department of Energy\'s Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey database to determine the estimated electricity use for our building in the following manner: 103,000 sf total building area x (12.6 kWh/sf-yr for lodging projects) = 1,297,800 kWh/yr We feel that this amount is more than sufficient, as the spa portion of the building constitutes approximately 17,000 sf of the total building area and will operate for fewer hours each day than the hotel portion of the building. Also, the hotel portion of the project does not contain restaurants, so there are no functions within the building operating at an intensity factor higher than the estimated 12.6 kWhr/yr. Please verify that the use of the DOE CBECS intensity factor of 12.6 kWhr/yr for lodging projects will be acceptable and that the 100% energy offset will merit an Innovation & Design Process credit for exemplary performance by doubling the 50% minimum amount.