Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED BD+C: Schools, LEED BD+C: Schools, LEED BD+C: Core and Shell, LEED BD+C: Core and Shell, LEED O+M: Existing Buildings, LEED O+M: Existing Buildings, LEED O+M: Existing Buildings

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.2, v2 - LEED 2.2, v3 - LEED 2009, v2 - Schools 2007, v3 - LEED 2009, v2 - LEED 2.0, v3 - LEED 2009, v2 - LEED 2.0, v3 - LEED 2008, v3 - LEED 2009

Inquiry

Our building has a flat roof membrane which is specified to comply with all requirements of this Credit. However, as part of our approval process the County also required, purely for aesthetics, a free-standing curved roof canopy which stands over some mechanical equipment but which mainly stands over and actually shades much (~40%) of the actual roof membrane. This curved roof canopy system does not directly connect to the building envelope except at its column bases and has a free flow of air between it and the roof membrane. As such, our question is whether this freestanding curved roof canopy material (which is currently specified as painted metal, but which may also be a membrane material) must be counted in the 75% of available roof area required by this Credit to achieve both Energy Star reflectance criteria (which it actually does) and emissivity (for which it has not been tested using ASTM E408).