Page 164 - The Engineering Guide to LEED-New Construction Sustainable Construction for Engineers

142 Cha pte r F o u r

are many prerequisites or credits which might have variations applicable to the design
or implementation of the project related to regional conditions in the United States. All
the prerequisites and credits for which regional variations might be applicable are noted
in the LEED 2009 Reference Guide and are so listed in Table 4.0.1 for the Energy and
Atmosphere category.
There are EP points under the Innovation and Design category available that relate
to several items in other categories. These are available for exceeding each of the
respective credit criteria to a minimum level as noted in the respective credit descriptions.
The available EP points for both versions 2.2 and 2009 are listed in Table 4.0.0. Note that
only a maximum total of four EP points are available in total for a project in LEED 2.2
and a maximum of three in LEED 2009 and they may be from any of the noted EP
options in any of the SS, WE, EA, MR, or IEQ LEED categories (see Chap. 7).
Two of the variables which must be determined for each project and which must be
kept consistent throughout the credits in a LEED submittal are the size and location of
the project site. The location of the site boundary is particularly important to credit
EAc2, since the locations of renewable energy sources on-site are the basis of this credit.
If renewable sources are located off-site, but used on-site, then they may only be applied
to EAc6. There may be exceptions to this for special circumstance, such as campus
settings. Also note that there is no rule that project areas are always contiguous, so it
might be possible to include portions of some campus renewable energy sources in the
project; however, this might then impact other credits, such as SSc2. Therefore, there
might be a need for narratives describing any such variations and how the project still
meets the intent of the credit. Usually, however, separate campus facilities for renewable
energy sources are counted as green power for EAc6. Any renewable energy that is
counted for EAc6 cannot also be counted toward EAc2. The importance of the LEED
boundary to EAc2 is also noted in Table 4.0.1.
Three of the credit subcategories are actually optimizations or enhancements of EA
prerequisites. The final column in Table 4.0.1 lists the prerequisites that are in this way
related to the credits.
In summary, most of the Energy and Atmosphere credits address problems associated
with energy use and production by a combination of methods. They aim to reduce energy
usage and to use forms of energy that have a less harmful impact on the environment.
Although several of the credits in the Energy and Atmosphere category might include a
capital cost investment, many provide a means to potentially reduce the associated utility
costs over the life of the building. The three prerequisite subcategories must be adhered to
and verified for each project.

Energy and Atmosphere Prerequisites

EA Prerequisite 1: Fundamental Commissioning of the Building Energy Systems
This prerequisite is intended to aid in the efficiency and verification of the energy
systems in a building.

USGBC Rating System
LEED-NC 2.2 lists the Intent, Benefits of Commissioning, Requirements, Commissioned
Systems, and Potential Technologies and Strategies for this credit as follows, most of
which are essentially the same in LEED 2009: