Smart Buildings and Green Buildings
Integrated building technology systems align and support a green building
approach. More specifically, a smart building approach facilitates meeting or
exceeding the technical requirements of the credits and points of the LEED
rating system. A few possibilities are discussed in the following sections.
Water-Efficient Landscaping (2 to 4 Points)
The intent of this credit is to limit or eliminate the use of water for landscape
irrigation. Effective and efficient watering is left to irrigation control systems.
One of several potential technologies and strategies for addressing this credit is
to use climate-based controllers where irrigation is required.
Typically these are systems that have a preset schedule and sensors which
can adjust the watering schedule as needed. These sensors may be moisture
sensors, flow sensors, rain shut-offs and “evapotranspiration” controllers
(devices that measure the evaporation of water into the air and the loss of water
by the plants, used in precisely calculating the specific water needs of the plants).
The result is watering the right areas with the right amount of water and avoiding
over- or under-watering and runoff.
The irrigation systems usually have a central controller connected to a sys-
tem administration terminal. These central controllers have evolved from
motorized valves to electromechanical clocks to microprocessor-based control-
lers. The system administrators will use maps of the landscaped areas (devel-
oped using a GPS or the landscape architect’s CAD drawings) to identify
the locations of sprinklers and sensors. Some irrigation systems are fairly
sophisticated with the system controller able to download current weather
predictions and adjust the system as needed. Products are also available
for organizations with a real estate portfolio to allow a central operations
center to monitor each building’s system and aggregate data for enterprise
water use.
FUNDAMENTALCOMMISSIONING OFBUILDINGENERGYSYSTEMS
(REQUIRED)ANDENHANCEDCOMMISSIONING(2 POINTS)
Fundamental building commissioning is a prerequisite for LEED certification.
It involves a commission agent independent of the design team or the system
contractors that is part of the design and construction process from the begin-
ning. There are several reasons that commissioning of building systems has
never been as critical as it is today. At the top of the list is the concern for
energy and resource usage. Suboptimal performance of HVAC, lighting
194 Smart Building Systems for Architects, Owners, and Builders