By Joe Salimando www.eleblog.com
The Role of Electrical Contractors on LEED Projects is a 55-page report (PDF free to NECA members, downloadable to non-members for $30). This is not a sales pitch.
What’s in there?
There’s a 10-plus-page section of what you might call “baseball cards” – called “LEED Credit Impact Slides” in the document. These explain the intent of each LEED credit in which ECs might have a role to play, along with pre-construction details and points about what will/should happen during construction. It’s as if someone went through a typical green/sustainable project seeking certification and pulled out the stuff applicable to an electrical contractor.
That section ends with a checklist (page 17) that the Michigan State researchers (the authors) aimed at ECs. It’s not clear where else you might find something like that.
Section 3 is all about the commissioning process – and what ECs might do. Some contractors might be familiar with commissioning; others will use these pages to study up on what’s required (and what’s not). In addition to explaining what commissioning is, how it relates to LEED, and more, many contractors may spend quality time with Table 3.5 – “Items to Take Into Account When Estimating the Cost of Commissioning.”
[Figure 3.1 shows a UPS system, “explaining component and system testing.” Two pages later, Table 3.6 – which, like Fig. 3.1, fills a full page – is a Typical Pre-Functional Checklist]
If you’re unfamiliar with ELECTRI International – The Foundation for Electrical Construction, Inc., it funds research. Electrical contractors are on the ELECTRI Council; if you check the acknowledgement page (most of us breeze right through that) you’ll find 10 electrical contractors who provided assistance and guidance to the researchers.
I’ve been to one ELECTRI research meeting in the past. The contractors who participate aren’t rubber-stamps. They challenge researchers to justify their conclusions; they provide input on central matters to the topic at hand – and side issues as well.
Find ordering information here.
A final thought: For its first few years, the LEED program had seemed to give a building’s electrical/mechanical systems – which are, after all, the big energy users – significantly less attention than some had thought they deserved. That was fixed in 2009, with LEED V3.
Electrical contractors, as one result, will now find themselves at the center of more green/sustainable construction discussions. It might be unseemly for NECA to talk up a product from the Foundation with which it’s associated – but in this case, it’s more than merited.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:29 am
I’d say it’s entirely appropriate for NECA to promote ELECTRI International’s research reports and other tools that come out of the Foundation. The value of the Foundation’s research isn’t realized when reports sit on a contractor’s shelf, but when NECA contractors and other industry members put the tools and recommendations into action. Our toughest challenge is to make sure our members and the industry know these tools are available, and we’ll continue to use all the channels we have to spread the word.