Our Energy Logic rater and project lead finished the final report on our LEED project. I had to log in to USGBC to pay the certification fee. Again nothing is easy and the first several times I submitted my credit card information the site hung up. Since we were camping at a lake it could have been that cell service was too slow. I tried again about 11 pm and the card info went through so they were able to file their report the next day.
I could hardly believe the points awarded for Energy and Atmosphere after the poor blower door test. I had been hoping for a score near zero because of our solar roof and other improvements. Our HERS rating was -43! Design rating for an Energy Star home the size of ours would be 77. (“This is an admirable score. Although this home is 30% more energy efficient than homes built according to the 2006 IECC requirements.”) The -43 rating is quite a bit below zero. (“This home is a Net Zero Energy Home. This means that this home produces as much energy through renewable resources, such as solar panels, as it consumes. Only a Net Zero Energy Home can score 0 on the RESNET HERS Index.”) That’s fantastic!
The LEED energy budget for the house was 174.1 MMBtu/year and our design was rated for -127.4 MMBtu/year. That is 173% lower than the baseline. The HERS score and energy reduction from baseline earn the full 36 points for Energy Efficiency. That is very exciting.
As far as the other points I was a little disappointed in several that I did not earn. I sent a spreadsheet of points I was planning and a few were in question. I thought if some had no questions they were being submitted but some were not.
On the other hand I did not know Regional Priority points were available and the project gained 3 points there.
I decided that the total points did not matter as long as we had enough for Platinum but then I did not realize that USGBC could challenge the report and might not allow points. So I still have to wait and see.
