LEED Exam Study Materials - Updated

It has been quite a while since I posted about LEED.  The other day I was asked about what materials I used to study when I passed the exam.  Looking back I found that most of them still existed and some of them had new domains (it appears the term “LEED” in their domains is gone… hmm… sounds like LEED is now a restricted trademark?).  Anyways,  if you are preparing for LEED, or plan on it soon, here are some of the great resources that helped me pass.  A little tip, take the GreenExamPrep Tests  as many times as you can stand.  I took them over 50 times I think.

Great Study Guide:

http://leafvisual.com/

The Practice Exams I used:

http://www.greenexamprep.com/store/products/practice_tests.html

http://www.greenexamprep.com/store/products/PTLEEDGREENASSOCIATE.html

A blog with some good info:

http://www.reallifeleed.com/

A cheat sheet Forum where people discuss their tests (not sure if it is up to the new LEED test)

http://www.areforum.org/forums/archive/index.php

Audio Study Guides…. This worked fantastically.

http://www.greenexamacademy.com/

LEED Innovation Credit - Pilot Program

Cool idea. Really taking the "Innovation" from the ID credit to a new level... as well as giving us technology geeks an opportunity to get credit for really thinking out of the box.

From Green Source Magazine:

Prospective LEED projects will now have the opportunity to earn an Innovation in Design point by pilot-testing credits listed in the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) new LEED Pilot Credit Library.

Launched in October 2009, the credit library is meant to encourage project teams to provide feedback on credits still in development and to enable USGBC to incorporate field-tested credits into the LEED rating systems on an ongoing basis. Six proposed credits, including one on life-cycle assessment (LCA), have been listed in the credit library and are currently open for pilot testing. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org.

Original source: Building Green

Bad Building... Go to your room... I am taking your LEED Away.

Very interesting... Makes a lot of sense overall...

.... From Architectural Record....

By Grigg, Dani

"In the newest version of the U.S. Green Building Council's green building standards, there's an element that has never before been hinted at in the LEED guidelines: A green building can now have its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and certification revoked.

That's got some industry professionals a little worried.

"I think it will discourage some owners," said Garett Chadwick, a LEED-Accredited Professional from Driggs-based Plan One/Architects. "We're already seeing some discouraged by the whole LEED process because of the submittal process. If they make the requirements a little more intense, ... that's certainly going to discourage some of them."

New rules require building owners to submit performance data on an ongoing basis for five years after certification. If they don't comply, their project's LEED status can be rescinded.

The USGBC has said this change was spurred by studies showing some LEED buildings were not performing up to expectations, casting a shadow on LEED's credibility.

"If you don't maintain and operate your building correctly, all the work to certify would be for naught," said Adam Richins, an attorney with Boise-based Stoel Rives. He specializes in issues related to construction and energy, and he's a member of the USGBC Idaho chapter's board.... Continue Reading..."

New MRc7 - LEED

This is not Revit oriented but will effect those of us LEED AP's. This is the kind of stuff we need to keep our eyes on... From Real Life LEED:

How I Learned to Accept a Change from Simple Imperfection to Torturous Accuracy

Yesterday the USGBC released the 2nd draft of the proposal for a new MRc7, Certified Wood credit for LEED-NC, LEED-Schools, LEED-CI, LEED-CS, and LEED-EBOM. You may remember that this was ultimately spurred by the lumber industry's complaints about how their own certification label, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), was unfairly excluded from the LEED credit which only recognized the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) more rigorous requirements. You can view the results of a report comparing various lumber certification schemes here. The new proposal is lengthy enough that I thought a summary here, with some commentary, might be useful to you guys.

More Complexity Please

As a result the USGBC's consensus-based process for developing new standards has developed a more inclusive and equitable standard for ranking the standardscalled the USGBC Forest Certification Benchmark. The new approach is a sort of LEED system within LEED where if a particular forest certification standard complies with over 48 prerequisites and more than 40% of the 32 voluntary credits (sound familiar?), you may attribute the cost of those products towards your "certified wood" percentage needed to earn credit MRc7... Continue Reading for much more great information...

ASHRAE 55 - Cool People, Not Buildings

Great Article by: Andrea Ward

"Recent updates to the industry standard for thermal comfort in buildings, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 55, will for the first time recognize elevated air speed as a component of thermal comfort, giving building designers and operators the ability to turn up the fans, rather than the air-conditioning, to help occupants stay comfortable when building temperatures rise.

According to Standard 55 committee chair Stephen Turner, a growing body of research indicates that having some degree of air movement within a space can keep people just as comfortable, if not more so, than do uniform, still-air conditions at lower temperatures. Based on this research, the change to the standard represents a move away from “the pursuit of uniformity” inside buildings and toward allowing a wider variety of conditions. "The main application of the elevated air speed changes is to provide designers and building operators with the flexibility to reduce air-conditioning energy use by keeping people comfortable with local air movement in warmer conditions," Turner said. This flexibility carries the potential for energy savings, and should give designers more latitude in creating spaces like atria, which are high-performance features for daylighting and cold-weather solar gain, but difficult and energy-intensive to condition efficiently to more traditional, uniform thermal conditions...Continue Reading..."

To fellow LEED AP's out there the article will definitely interest you but I believe it should interest my fellow Revit users as well. The simple idea of "Cool people, not buildings" is such a great way to think about thermal comfort. If you only skimmed the article then I still hope the next time you begin to think about thermal comfort while designing you remember "cool people, not buildings"...

I.E.S. v6.0 - Now with LEED!

IES are delighted to announce the release of version 6.0 of the suite of building performance analysis tools. This version encompasses more major developments than ever before including an upgraded VE-Pro, with an enhanced interface, Navigator functionality, multiplexing and an enhanced water cooled chiller model, providing a more intuitive user experience and detailed level of analysis. We believe that v6.0 offers our users more commerical advantages in terms of marketing differentiation, technical advantage and productivity than any other version. Click here to read what our Managing Director has to say about the latest release. You can also visit our Software Centre and register to download our free and trial software. With version 6.0, we are also introducing new VE-Gaia software for environmental performance analysis plus significantly enhanced VE-Toolkits with new LEED and Sustainability analysis.

NEW! VE-Gaia: a revolution in building performance analysis Learn More

VE-Gaia allows you to track progress, control quality, iterate workflows, trigger simulations, filter results and produce automated visual and rich text reports. A special buy one get one free offer is running on the core VE-Gaia product until the release of version 6.1. Contact sales@iesve.com for further details or register for a free trial. You might also be interested to read 'A Guided Quest for Hidden Energy' - a great feature article on VE-Gaia in Cadalyst Magazine by Kenneth Wong.

VE-Toolkits: immediate feedback on early stage designs Learn More

The significantly enhanced VE-Toolkits provide more detailed, highly visual and rich-text reporting and now include climate exploration, water reviews, low zero carbon technology consideration, and analysis for certain LEED credits. A new easy three-tab interface consists of Overview, Sustainability and LEED sections. Contact sales@iesve.com for further details orregister for a free trial. To find out more please contact your local office or visit our web-site.

So... now if you are a student in a design studio and you create this beautiful building model in Revit that you have worked on for the past three months you can tell your professor what LEED rating it is? How many students in a design studio will LEED rate their building in the presentation... or at least pin point the areas where they would achieve LEED points?

Just another advantage of Building Information Modeling.

International Green Construction Code

More and more I am so very glad I took the LEED Exam. It appears that LEED is influencing everything from the latest Energy Bill to building codes:

"Code officials could see a new universal regulatory framework to guide the design and construction of green commercial buildings by the end of next year.

On June 29, the American Institute of Architects, along with the International Code Council (ICC) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), announced their intent to create an International Green Construction Code (IGCC).

The new code aims to cover all aspects of sustainability in the built environment, from roofing to ventilation strategies, drawing from existing codes and standards to create one universal code. The code will apply to new construction and renovations. “We hope this will bring all of the separate efforts together and put them under one umbrella to make it easier for jurisdictions to know what they are adopting,” says Adolf Zubia, ICC board president.

A 29-person drafting committee—made up of a broad range of stakeholders—will refer to an ASTM database of existing green codes and standards to “help draw up the code and identify any holes,” explains Dominic Sims, chief operating officer of the ICC.

Among the major initiatives already under way is Standard 189, a code-enforceable standard for green buildings that is being developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. The initiative was first launched in 2006 and, following several public comment periods, its final release is expected by the end of this year.

International Green Construction Code representatives plan to meet with Standard 189 committee representatives in late July to discuss how the groups can cooperate, says Richard Weiland, the ICC’s chief executive officer. “We hope this will compliment a lot of what’s going on with Standard 189,” he says. Plus, Brendan Owens, the USGBC’s vice president of LEED technical development, is serving on the drafting committee for the International Green Construction Code.

Kent Peterson, chairman of the committee writing Standard 189 and principal of California-based P2S Engineering, says he would like to ultimately see Standard 189 language in the IGCC code and looks forward to meeting with IGCC representatives to coordinate efforts. "We want to meet to make sure we're not all going in separate directions and confusing the industry," he says..." Read More...

Wow... every day it makes more and more sense to use Revit.

House Bill and LEED?!

Greg over at Revit3D.com did some great investigation (well... reading) of the Energy Bill that you might have heard about in the news recently. I decided to read some of it as well thanks to his link and as stated on page 298:

‘‘(A) Effective on the date of enactment of
the American Clean Energy and Security Act of
2009, 30 percent reduction in energy use relative
to a comparable building constructed in compliance with the baseline code;

‘‘(B) effective January 1, 2014, for residential buildings, and January 1, 2015, for commercial buildings, 50 percent reduction in energy use relative to the baseline code; and

‘‘(C) effective January 1, 2017, for residential buildings, and January 1, 2018, for commercial buildings, and every 3 years thereafter, respectively, through January 1, 2029, and January 1, 2030, 5 percent additional reduction in
energy use relative to the baseline code." Read More...

Anyone familiar with LEED would know that this few paragraphs sound like they came right out of the reference guide. How does this relate to you, Revit world? Do a search on this blog and google about programs such as Ecotect, Integrated Environmental Solutions, Green Building Studio, and and other analysis programs...

Now do a search on the formulas and calculations involved in determining the energy usage of a building the OLD way... yeah... what makes sense?

Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP

I passed! Thank goodness it is over.

What a doozy of an exam. I took the entire week off from work to study and still did not feel comfortable taking the test. Fortunately, it all paid off.

Now that I am officially a LEED Accredited Professional I believe my duties to the Revit world shall partially revolve around LEED. Ultimately, this site always paralleled the ideas of Revit and how they can be implemented to further increase the efficiency of a very inefficient industry beginning in the classroom. In this case, I guess I have always sort of revolved Revit around the ideas and practices brought about by LEED. Unfortunately, the studying is not over because I must learn the new version of LEED (v3.0)... but the tests are!!!

Please be patient as we return to our regular programming. Soon enough I will be back into my posting schedule of at least one a day.

Thank you everyone for still reading the blog and emailing me with your Revit questions. Let's LEED the way to a new direction in the AEC industry together.

Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP

The LEED Scramble.

You may have noticed my posting slowing down a bit. The reason for this is simple. LEED! I had no idea how much time it would consume. I have been studying every night now for a few hours and the cram period hasn't arrived yet. Appearently I am not the only one doing so. Greg over at Revit3D.com found one of the best study guides I have seen yet. It's visual and very helpful.

• Link to Revit3D post.
• Link to LEEDVisual.com

Thanks Greg and thanks to my readers for still following the blog everyday. I promise the posting will pick up after the next two weeks. Stay tuned for more!

LEED AP Exam Registration.

Only an hour left!!  Last chance to register for LEED v2.2

I registered last week and scheduled today.  As much of a challenge it will be to learn all of these damn credits while working and going to school full time I am excited.  

Anyone else out there taking it?

Here are some sites I managed to find so far...

• InTheLEED.com
  
• Green building Exam Test Prep
• The ARE Forums
• USGBC Store