Green-approved buildings using more energy

[Capt Worley PE]

Washington, D.C. may have the highest number of certified green buildings in the country, but research by Environmental Policy Alliance suggests it might not be doing much good.

The free-market group analyzed the first round of energy usage data released by city officials Friday and found that large, privately-owned buildings that received the green energy certification Leadership in Energy Design (LEED) actually use more energy than buildings that didn’t receive this green stamp of approval.

LEED is the brainchild of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a private environmental group.

“LEED certification is little more than a fancy plaque displayed by these ‘green’ buildings,” charged Anastasia Swearingen, LEED Exposed’s lead researcher on the project. “Previous analyses of energy use by LEED-certified buildings have consistently shown that LEED ratings have no bearing on actual energy efficiency.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/02/report-dcs-green-approved-buildings-using-more-energy/#ixzz2uzyk1QLa

 

[Sapper PE LS]

Think we all knew this, now we've got research to back it up.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Add inefficiency to the higher cost of construction, and you have....LEED!

 

[MetsFan]

Add inefficiency to the higher cost of construction, and you have....LEED!

It's called "green" for a reason.

The LEED model grades buildings on ideal conditions — the certification is based on “if everyone shuts their blinds, turns off their computers at the end of the day, makes sure the lights are off — but it doesn’t factor in how much energy is really used after it’s actually occupied,” Swearingen contended.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/02/report-dcs-green-approved-buildings-using-more-energy/#ixzz2v0E0NdIO

That's a big part of the problem. Whoever is maintaining the building also needs proper training in order to keep it energy efficient.

 

[Ble_PE]

Think we all knew this, now we've got research to back it up.

Yea, I'll file this under the "No Sh!t, Sherlock" folder.

 

[YMZ PE]

I'm skeptical of this summary. The detail is lacking. How many buildings were analyzed? What's their occupancy and how does that compare to the non-green buildings they analyzed? And why is it that I can't find this "study" anywhere online, not even on the LEED Exposed website?

 

[Capt Worley PE]

^I suspect the arguments that will be put up by the pro-LEED crowd will be "well, it would have consumed 50% more power if not for LEED modifications dialing it back to 12%." Which may be a legitimate argument, but points to an ever growing energy usage.

Tangentially, it is amazing how many electronic devices we have plugged in sucking energy that we didn't have back in the seventies. I walk around the house at night and amazed by all the LED indicators I see. What purpose do they serve, besides draining energy?

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I'm skeptical of this summary. The detail is lacking. How many buildings were analyzed? What's their occupancy and how does that compare to the non-green buildings they analyzed? And why is it that I can't find this "study" anywhere online, not even on the LEED Exposed website?

I couldn't find it either.

http://environmentalpolicyalliance.org/

 

[YMZ PE]

I'm not pro-LEED (despite being accredited), but I don't think this press release proves anything or is even worthy of a counter-argument.

I suspect the researcher averaged the EUIs from a handful of energy intensive buildings (hospitals, office buildings and the like) and compared that to the overall average EUI of the DC metro area, which would include lots of residential buildings to lower the average. Bad science in the name of furthering an agenda.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Bad science in the name of furthering an agenda.

So true of so many things.

For what it is worth, the feds dropped their LEED requirements because the added construction costs never provide a ROI, and locally, it was shot down because no SC tree farms meet the sustainabilty requirements of LEED.

 

[YMZ PE]

Yeah, while studying for the LEED exam I thought it was fishy that only one type of forest certification was accepted. And it was strange that municipalities accepted LEED as gospel and started mandating it without doing pilot projects first. The certification process stinks of hidden agendas, but I think it's a step forward that due to LEED, we're now more conscientious about energy efficiency.

 

[YMZ PE]

^ though I never want to go through the nightmare of trying to get a building certified.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Yeah, while studying for the LEED exam I thought it was fishy that only one type of forest certification was accepted. And it was strange that municipalities accepted LEED as gospel and started mandating it without doing pilot projects first. The certification process stinks of hidden agendas, but I think it's a step forward that due to LEED, we're now more conscientious about energy efficiency.

It is a very expensive step, though.

And outside the construction industry, I'm not really sure Joe Public even knows or cares about LEED. And of those that do, probbaly 75% blindly accept is as 'green and gooooooood' while spirals turn on their eyes.

 

[Road Guy]

I did a LEED Silver building ( a 3 story Traffic Management Center) it wasnt really a pain in the ass but the process is just a joke, its a money grab in the name of environmental awareness. We had to pay a LEED architect, and then you pay for a LEED certfication and then once you have paid hundreds of thousands in extra bullshit they even charge you for the little plaque

I always flush the green handle down no matter if I have solid waste or not

 

[YMZ PE]

God forbid I should ever have to go through the nightmare and expense of getting a building certified. I agree the process is a joke. But it's nice we have a manual that we can cherry pick design ideas from. The practice in my agency is to use green building principles as convenient but not bother with the certification.

We even make our own plaques at a fraction of the cost.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

here's a link to an older (2009) study: http://www.oberlin.edu/physics/Scofield/pdf_files/eb-09.pdf

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Here's an interesting read: http://thepragmaticsteward.com/category/leed-buildings/

He does seem to be examining data seven years after the fact.

 

[MetsFan]

God forbid I should ever have to go through the nightmare and expense of getting a building certified. I agree the process is a joke. But it's nice we have a manual that we can cherry pick design ideas from. The practice in my agency is to use green building principles as convenient but not bother with the certification.

We even make our own plaques at a fraction of the cost.

That seems like a great practice. You don't need a certification to tell you your building is energy efficient. There are so many things you can do to lower energy costs.

I've only done the mechanical portion of LEED but that was a pain in the a$$. I was working on a typical 50,000 sf office building but the LEED submission process took me about a month of just working on that one project. The constant back and forth of my energy calculations and design is not something I want to do again. It's funny, I remember hearing about how one team submitted to get a credit for using all e-copies instead of actually printing paper.

 

[Road Guy]

The one we built had a dual (separate) AC system for when the outside temp was. 70-80 it would generate air conditioning from cooler outside air... And in Georgia that's maybe 3 weeks? Total waste of money IMO....

I was just building it, didn't design the "thang"

 

[engineergurl]

God forbid I should ever have to go through the nightmare and expense of getting a building certified. I agree the process is a joke. But it's nice we have a manual that we can cherry pick design ideas from. The practice in my agency is to use green building principles as convenient but not bother with the certification.

We even make our own plaques at a fraction of the cost.

I don't think any of my projects actually went and got certified... we sort of just self checked them against the list, although we did follow the goals to make sure we could get certified if wanted. I don't suppose anyone remembers SPiRiT?