I'm so glad that people are utilizing this forum in the manner it was intended. It's nice to know that we're not Stormtroopers building the Deathstar, but virtually working together not in a cubicle, the force getting stronger. Career's get so bogged down by daily minutia, that this feels like a couple of car related forums I'm a participant with. Albeit this forum seems to be just like the car forums with "how do I fix this" questions, I'd like to encourage anyone that would like to show off a little. Leaving out company names, client names...etc, is their a rudimentry napkin sketch of the plant, then a final piping schematic, and associated LEED Summary page you'd like to share? Have you done a presentation with your office, or USGBC or your local ASHRAE Chapter, how did it go, did people ask questions, anything you'd like to share? Is this your first project, will this be your last project? And if you want to open up and share any daily grind, project manager backlash, integrated design techniques...please do.

I'll start. My first LEED project (2007). The project manager as with anyone in the company knew how many hours it's take for a LEED design. He did the standard fee budget calculations and assumed it's take an additional 10hrs, maybe 20. When I racked up 180hrs, he thought 40+the 10, it was like my job was on the line. It felt like once this one was done, and he got what he wanted (certified Silver NC 2.0), that my job would be terminated. So with the added pressure of not having the LEED process go smoothly and getting 20Q's from the reviewers, ugh, I felt doom on my shoulder. Well, I found my niche'. At home, I found only one Google hit on hours it took for a LEED energy model. It said something in the order of at least 80hrs per a 20ksf Office that included LEED rebuttle. So I shared this information with my PM. He appreciated it, and we started to work on what it'd actually take for the "next project". The A/E firm "ate" the learning profits of LEED modeling and started to develope a new realistic multiplier. This was huge for me, a relief. We went on through another 16 buidings, before I finally left. As with the invention of CAD, so to in these economic times, bean counters find ways to stretch the engineer thin, and require you to fullfill duties as they see fit. I'm not ranting so much as equaly appreciating the emmersion into the energy modeling field. So here's some numbers like a dart getting into the inner circle of the dart board...depending on complexity of the systems&plants and building size/configuration...180ksf barracks ~180hrs, 120ksf Office (VAV) ~120hrs due to ASHRAE 61 iterations for multispace vent calc's, 35ksf Vehicle Repair/Training Center ~100hrs.

Thank you in advance for sharing...