Let's cut straight to it:
LEED background information:
LEED energy models have a default requirement that process loads and receptacles are 25% of the baseline building costs. The total cost must be identical in the proposed LEED model.
However, this assumption is based on a standard office building. Thus, if the process loads and receptacles are designed and documented (think spreadsheets, or even a basic description), one can use the actual designed loads. This can yield free leed points, bascially LEED plus a little math gets you 2 valuable LEED points.
....LEED + Math = 2 Points!
Example LEED Case Study:
Let's consider a building that has 31% savings on the proposed building over 90.1-2007 building:
Let's say the Baseline utilities are $100,000 annuallu, of which $25,000 is from misc equipment ($75,000 from everything else). At 31% savings, the Proposed building would be $69,000 annually - of which $25,000 is from misc equipment (since by default, it must equal the baseline)
If instead, someone took the time to do it, and the misc loads were documented and that made the price equal to $15,000 in the baseline model, the revised savings are:
Baseline:
$75,000 (everything else) + $15,000 = $90,000
