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LEED Site Assessment Credit - Climate Analysis Documentation
LEED Site Assessment Credit - Climate Analysis Documentation

Use graphs and data to document climate analysis for LEED Sustainable Sites - Site Assessment Credit

Patrick Chopson avatar
Written by Patrick Chopson
Updated over a week ago

Users can support the documentation for USGBC LEED v4.0 - SS: Site Assessment credit using cove.tool's climate data generated in the report.

Before we begin

Download the Site Assessment Worksheet from USGBC. The form is available for the LEED v4.0 version of the credit. Cove.tool does not generate credit documentation, rather it can support the climate portion of site studies, using data from the app to complete LEED forms manually.

The section on climate talks about solar exposure and seasonal sun angles. Cove.tool can generate solar studies for a given location to help identify potential opportunities and hurdles, like orientation and fenestration.

Climate Report

All projects are required to provide a site survey or assessment detailing multiple characteristics of the site. One of these is climate data. For any project within cove.tool, users can easily access climate data by going to the baseline page and selecting Climate Analysis, on the top right.

Alternatively, the Climate Analysis tab displays various diagrams as seen in the image below. These include:

  • Relative Temperature and Humidity

  • Radiation by Sky Segment

  • Adaptive Comfort

  • Radiation Benefit

  • Psychrometric Chart and associated passive strategies

  • Wind rose

Not only does the page generate graphs for the given location, but it also includes explanatory diagrams that help interpret these climate conditions. Using this information can be helpful to incorporate passive strategies into the project, and improve the comfort and performance of the building. Each of the graphs can be individually saved as high-resolution PNG files and are also included in the project report (also generated from the Baseline page).

This automatically compiled climate report can be used to support the LEED Site Assessment worksheet and also guide the influence of climate on the project design.

Happy Modeling!

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