New resource – Annual Outdoor Water Calculator

Would your project benefit from considering the annual irrigation need rather than the peak watering month?

While the LEED v4/4.1 Indoor Water Use Reduction calculator provides an annual determination of water needs for fixtures and fittings, the LEED v4/4.1 Outdoor Water Use Reduction Calculator only considers the peak watering month. The evaluation periods don’t match. The latter is therefore not helpful in determining the annual irrigation water needs for offsetting with alternative water supplies (such as rainwater) and considering cistern monthly drawdown calculations balanced with indoor fixture usage.

A new Annual Outdoor Water Use Reduction Calculator has been released allowing project teams to more accurately calculate watering needs over seasonal adjustments. This calculator was released to support water budgeting in the pilot Alternative Compliance Path 115 Whole Project Water Use Reduction. That said, this calculator can also be applied to any project considering alternative water needs for irrigation or simply wanting to better understand annual irrigation needs.

For a full listing of new and revised calculators, check out USGBC’s February update.