Rating System

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

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.2, v2 - Schools 2007

Inquiry

Our project is a science and technology laboratory building in the city of Port St. Lucie, Florida. An Energy Cost Budget calculation has been done for the project to meet the requirements of EA Prerequisite 2 - Minimum Energy Performance. The project is not seeking EA Credit 1-Optimize Energy Performance. Under the LEED Reference Guide EA Credit 1 "a model using the Energy Cost Budget method will NOT be accepted for credit under EA credit 1", therefore it won\'t be accepted for EA Credit 6. The alternate methodology is to use the DOE-CBECS survey. Laboratory buildings are part of the \'other\' category with a median rate of 13.8 kWh/square foot. It has been our experience that a building functioning as a laboratory uses significantly more electricity per square foot. In a CIR ruling on 2-04-2008 under LEED EB, it reads, An alternative approach for your laboratory building would be to use the Energy Benchmarking Tool available through Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21), which is a resource co-sponsored by the EPA and DOE for the design, construction, and operation of laboratories. The Energy Benchmarking Tool can be found here: http://www.labs21century.gov/toolkit/benchmarking.htm. Using the metrics provided by the tool, calculate your project\'s percent reduction in energy use compared to the benchmark. You can then calculate the corresponding number of LEED points. Because this project does not currently fall into a benchmark region in the Labs for the 21st Century\'s Energy Benchmarking Tool, an electricity rate of 40.1 kWh/square foot as determined by the aforementioned tool has been recommended. If this methodology is not acceptable to the USGBC, please advise on a desired approach to estimating energy used for laboratories.