LEED Forum Fun!

I ♥ Online Communities

Believe it or not, there are times (read: most of the time) RealLifeLEED has a question he needs help with and can't find an answer. As a general rule, that's when I fish the question out to the internet at large. Between AREForums' LEED section, 4specs.com's Sustainable Design Topics Section, and to a lesser extent DesignCommunity's LEED and Green Certification forum, you can normally get an answer or some form of guidance within a day or so. Of the three, AREForum is the most responsive, 4specs is the most credible, and DesignCommunity... well... there's a fair amount of yelling but it can be interesting.

Not This Forum

The USGBC hosts a Member to Member (M2M) exchange, but as the name implies you must work for a USGBC member company to have access, so it's usefulness is limited. It's organized by profession (architect, engineer, contractor, etc.) which is a pretty useless organization strategy given sustainability's emphasis on INTEGRATED design. Worse still is the fact that comments are ordered by the date the initial post instead of last comment, so new comments are frequently buried. Hopefully a rework of this system will be unveiled alongside the LEED-Online improvements scheduled with the roll-out of LEED 2009.

Getting to the point...

So what this all means is there's a fair amount of usefull information available buried in many of these forums. I'm going to start posting helpful forum posts on RealLifeLEED on a "vague time period" basis starting... NOW!

Forum Round-Up 1

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I passed using the LEED-NC v2.2 2080 questions software http://www.leedappractice.com/
recommended to anyone really busy but wanting to pass

Unknown said...

Does anyone know what the benefits are for the design team (architect/engineers) for getting a building LEED certified? Is there some kind of tax break/cuts they get or some sort of check from the government they can apply for?

I'm a new LEED AP and electrical engineer at a MEP consulting firm and wanted to know this information. We haven't worked on any LEED projects but have worked on some very green projects before and want to know these answers so maybe I can market it to some of my clients (architects/owners/contractors) to pursue getting buildings LEED certified.

A couple of more questions. How can I get a project LEED certified if I need experience to do so? Do I just need to be on a LEED design team for two projects? How can I do this if I am the only person LEED certified that I work with? I don't think I will be able to get any experience before hand because I am the only person who is accredit to do so and will be the first to do so? I became LEED AP so that I could market this and hopefully make more money getting buildings LEED certified.

Last question: Can I certified an apartment since its housing development and not NEW Construction? I passed the LEED AP New Construction exam.

Thanks to all who reply and just read!!!!!!!!

Ron Matthew said...

My understanding is that the LEED process is designed in a way to save building operational expenses along the way - so you in the long run you save money. Also some of the energy efficient measures will qualify for a tax break, but the rules may vary by different country.

Getting experienced on LEED projects is a difficulty - its also true that LEED jobs are distributed more on the west coast, which is a problem for anyone not located there. There are still more LEED APs being generated than the demand. Worldwide interest is also growing.

Personally, I got my LEED certification studying the flash cards and material myself and taking a few practice tests through leedexcel.com - it was more economical than other packages.

Ron

Unknown said...

Hi...

I'm one of the first 500 LEED Green Associates and am writing a LEED 2009 book. I am looking for a 2009 project I can participate in and write about. I'm willing to pay the registration fee ($600) and the company that actually does the project would pay the remaining fees. Can you help me get the word out?

Thanks.

Sherry, LEED GA
smbonelli@gmail.com

wd said...

free leed ap exam practice and leed ap tests.

http://www.leededu.com

Anonymous said...

We would like to help you earn the Measurement and Verification and Innovation in Design credits toward the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED® certification. Please visit us at:
http://www.iprotos.com
contact@iprotos.com

Tim LEED AP said...

If you need LEED Experience on a project just type Green Work Experience into a search engine. They have a few projects to help on.

Benefits of LEED: tax breaks, work productivity is raised with lighting and ventilation and publicity to name a few.

Mary's Blog said...

regarding the anonymous first poster... http://leedtestscam.blogspot.com/2010/08/dont-buy-leedappracticecom-exam-study.html please read.

Allison Black said...

I currently am a full time undergrad Interior design student and would like to take the LEED GA exam by the end of the year.

There are many different educational programs out there, and I have to take a course online. In order to pass the exam what educational program do you suggest?

Anonymous said...

Another good forum Energy-models.com/forum

A lot of information about LEED in general, but not a lot of yelling

Also I got an email that they released a free course today about LEED fan calcs. Got 1 LEED Specific GBCI CE hour

CleanEdison said...

This is great! The more advice and knowledge we share in the LEED community, the better. AREForum is great, and we've also found leeduser.com to be a good resource.

Anonymous said...

Looking for additional LEED GA/AP exam preparation resources?

Adding to this LEED video would be the list of LEED-related articles and tips, centered on LEED AP, GA, BD+C and other disciplines at 100Questions Exam Portal (http://www.100qns.com) . There are articles on sustainable green design, heat island effect, and LEED-related definitions as well.

The only thing is that it is not a pure LEED site but also contains other exams, but it's neat interface makes it easy to find the LEED resources.

The other good thing is that you can test your LEED knowledge and prepare for the exam via the exam library, which contains free-to-try exam questions. The LEED section could be accessed from the drop-down menu, and because the portal covers several topics, it could be confusing initially due to the enormous amount of data, but if you spend some time navigating the contents you might be well-rewarded!