How to earn LEED points with rainwater harvesting

Are you considering LEED certification for a new building?

If so, a rainwater harvesting system with UV Pure disinfection can help you earn points across several categories for your green building project.

Disinfection before distribution is an important part of a rainwater harvesting system as it inactivates harmful microbial pathogens that can contaminate rainwater as its collected and conveyed to storage. UV Pure’s products are validated to provide an effective UV disinfection dose in water with UVT as low as 50%. This level of treatment assures public health protection under challenging conditions and significantly outperforms many conventional UV systems, which are often rated to be effective for cleaner water at UVT above 75%.

UV Pure systems can achieve this level of treatment because Crossfire Technology® incorporates:

  • a dual-lamp, reflective disinfection process that provides 2.4 times the dose of conventional light-in-a-pipe systems, and
  • targets pathogens from 360 degrees to eliminate shadowing.
  • Each unit is also equipped with a self-cleaning system that prevents fouling of the quartz sleeve from minerals and enables it to be effective in water 10 times harder than conventional systems.
  • The self-cleaning system eliminates the need for unit owners to shut down, disassemble and manually clean the quartz sleeve and avoids the use of potentially hazardous acid.

A rainwater harvesting system equipped with UV Pure disinfection can help you gain LEED points across several categories, including:

Indoor water use reduction (up to 6 points):

New buildings can earn points for reducing potable water demand indoors with alternative sources of water, including treated rainwater.

Outdoor water use reduction (up to 2 points):

New green building projects earn a point by installing an efficient landscape irrigation system that reduces the site’s potable water demand by 50% from the calculated baseline for a site’s peak watering month. New sites can also obtain an additional point by reducing the site’s water requirements by an additional 30% using alternative water sources such as rainwater.

Rainwater management (up to 3 points):

New buildings can receive points for reducing runoff and improving water quality with low impact development (LID) and green infrastructure (GI). By adding a rainwater harvesting system, building owners can treat and reuse rainwater onsite, which helps the site reduce its potable water demand.

To learn more about water credits for obtaining LEED certification, click here.

We look forward to having you contact us to discuss your challenging UV disinfection needs.