Friday, October 3, 2008
LEED NC 2.2 Vs LEED NC 2009
Any comments and insight into rating systems shall be greatly appreciated especially in regional credits
Saturday, August 2, 2008
How do I prepare for LEED Exam?
- Register with http://www.usgbc.org/- browse the contents of the site on day today basis most of the information required for the exam taker is free, official and authentic.
- Schedule your exam. 2-3 months of regular study and 2-3 days of intensive study should be enough in my experience.
- Download LEED NC summary book which lists the intent, requirements, submittals and technologies/strategies for each credit and includes the Credit Checklist from here.
- Obtain LEED NC manual for the detailed explanations of above. This requires payment, your employer may provide it.
- As you prepare for the exam tabulate each credit intent. requirements, statergies,standards refered, submital phase(design/construction), submital documents, requirements for exemplary performance and any key points which you feel is important for that credit.You can download a similar table from here.
- Go through the registration process in http://www.usgbc.org/
- Go through the certification process in http://www.usgbc.org/
- Go through the CIR process in http://www.usgbc.org/
- Go through the following quizes from university of florida
Verify your answers here
Try this practice exam once you are prepared
Write to me on any clarifications
What are the benifits getting a building certified?
- Certification process enables third party to verification that your buildings are as per the required green building standard.
- Lower Operating cost of building.
- There are also other benefits of selling or renting the property at premium price, getting the market attracted towards the property or facility etc.
Which exam should I take to become LEED AP?
90% of LEED APs have qualified in LEED NC as major projects come under this category.
My recomedations are as below
If u r a Consultant, Designer you can go for LEED NC
If u r a Interior Designer go for LEED CI
If u r a facilities manager go for LEED EB
If u r a group from same company different people can take different rating system so that you ll have diversified knowledge and can compliment each other.
What are the various LEED Rating Systems?
2. LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED EB)- Applicable for Existing buildings which are 2 years or older. Focuses on sustainable operation and maintenance of the building.
3. LEED for Core & Shell Building(LEED CS)- Applicable for buildings where the building owner develops only the exterior structure and the interiors will be done by the tenants
4. LEED for Commercial Interiors(LEED CI) – This is applicable for the tenants of core & shell building
5. LEED Home- Individual Homes, multifamily homes (3 or less habitable stories)
6. LEED Schools- Self explanatory
7. LEED Neighbourhood Development- Applicable for township development
What is LEED?
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. A leading certification process by the U.S. Green Building Council that evaluates new buildings constructed to common green standards.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a green building assessment tool. It evaluates buildings in five areas:
Sustainable Sites
Water Efficiency
Energy & Atmosphere
Materials & Resources
Indoor Environmental Quality
Points are available for achieving LEED credits. The more points a project gets, the higher the certification.
The highest rating is "platinum" and the least rating is "certification", In between the ratings shall be gold or silver.
So the Hirarchy of the rating system is Platinum, Gold, Silver and Certified.
There are also other certification process like BREAM in UK, GRIHA in India (developed by TERI)etc
What is Green Building?
- A green building is designed to conserve resources and reduce negative impacts on the environment - whether it is energy, water, building materials or land. Compared to conventional construction, green buildings may use one or more renewable energy systems for heating and cooling, such as solar electric, solar hot water, geothermal, bio mass, or any combination of these.
- Inother words, A green building is a building which uses less energy, water, recycled material for construction without compromising on comfort of the occupants
- In short green building makes less impact on the environment compared to conventional buildings
Thursday, July 31, 2008
How Pacific controls head quaters in dubai acheived platinum rating
- Adopted technologies to optimize energy use both during construction and operation of the building.
- Solar power for both lighting and airconditioning
- 50 kW of PV Panels supplies around 70% of peak lighting load
- Solar thermal collectors provide hot water for absorption chillers to provide around 90 TR airconditioning
- Facade uses low emisity glass to maximise day lighting while minimising solar heat gains
- Major construction materials sourced within 200km diameter from site
- Major construction materials from recycled source
- Sewage treatment plant Installed treats all the waste water and supplies for irrigation and mechanical processes.
- 35% decreased energy use from basecase
- 40% decreased wateruse from basecase
LEED NC Sample Exam
http://kmbahamedhotline.googlepages.com/BuildingGreenLEEDsampleTest.pdf
Friday, July 25, 2008
Welcome to Save Energy and Save World
This blog has been created to promote ideas,awareness on
- Energy Conservation
- Sustainable Development
- Green Building and LEED Certification
- Environmental Protection
- and all related topitc
Hope this will be good forum to share our knowledge and experiences in sustainable development.
Let us join hands to save this earth for our generations to come