I work for a mechanical contractor as a designer/project manager. I know some of you must be LEED AP. Can you give input as to the process, testing, etc? How long did everything take you? What kind of practice courses/study methods/books/etc can you recommend? My biggest concerns are the timeline, and the difficulty of the tests. From what I’ve read, you must first become a LEED Green Associate (2hr test) before you can go for LEED AP (another 2hr test). Also hear the whole process is a pain in the ass, with a lot of it being memorization. My goal is to be LEED AP by the end of this year, giving me 5.5 months from start to finish.
although I am not LEED AP…some of co workers are…I work for an MEP Engineering consultant firm, I will ask some questions and get back to you…but from what most of them tell me its really BS just a requirement for projects to actually get LEED certified, we work on a lot of jobs that was to be designed to LEED but never actually get the certification…of the 20 or so that we have designed to LEED in that past couple years I think 2 or 3 are going to attempt to get certified…but I will get some info on the actuall process for becoming LEED AP
i work for an a/e firm, only need 1 leed ap in the company to be certified to get leed certification for the building.
its a bunch of crap. the test is also much more difficult then it used to be in previous versions, last i heard there was a rumor about starting to have a requirement for continuing education credits like with a pe, cpd, etc.
if theres a bonus for you getting it through your employer, go for it. if not, who cares. at work we have been designing energy efficient before leed even became popular.
all the above rings true…VQ30de on here went through a bunch of LEED crap…when they first started offering it all you had to do was read a book and take a test. Then they started increasing the requirements every year or two making it more and more difficult to acheive. I think I even heard that in the future they would require each individual to lead the design and construction of a building that acheives LEED certification before they grant them LEED AP…
i just finished talking to one of the guys…he took he exam a few years ago and did studying and testing in 3 weeks…i guess a lot has changed like the others are saying…and i correct myself 1 person on the entire design team has to be certified for the project to get certified…he did say it is a lot of memorization because you need to know right down to how garbage is being taken off the site and it all percentages of crap…like Focus said, we have been doing energy efficient and water conservation/reclamation techniques before LEED was popular as well
LEED is horseshit. It’s a marketing gimmick. It’s full of holes, and provides an almost prescriptive approach to designing “green” buildings. My buildings are not anywhere LEED certified, but my average wall r value is in the 60s
With that said, it’s not too bad. Take a class and read some books and you should be fine. It’s not prohibitively difficult, although as stated above, it’s gotten more difficult. That alone should be motivation to bang it out now, before it again gets more difficult
i got it about 6 years ago…read the manual once before the exam…easy peasy. now it is a much larger and more complex system with various designations that might be more or less applicable to your area of work…and it costs much more and there is continuing education…and maybe 10% of all projects i’ve done have actually gone through with the certification…
the problem is that it became so popular as a marketing tool for the poor fools the industry calls clients that there were freaking secretaries getting the designation…i think at one point the firm i worked for had something like 600 LEED APs…it was ridiculous. in and industry where everyone loves to put a bunch of letters after their name on the business card it has definitely become a favorite although it is mostly pointless although many firms do now ‘require’ it of their new hires.
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R-60 walls? what are you heating with a hair dryer?
I took this crap and a ton of classes. Very rare it’s ever necessary.
Their main point is always it doesn’t cost more than a conventional build. lol ok.
Bump, passed the LEED Green Associate exam last week. If you get everything wrong you score a 125/200, everything correct gets a 200/200. Passing is 170. I got a 180/200.
I found that spending time just reading the material and taking the practice tests was the best way to prepare. The Prep book I used (by Gang Chen) gave a practice exam, and 80% of it was memorization of credits, percentages, and other number-based facts. In reality the test only asked for numeric answers a few times. Overall it was focused on interpretation of the material. As was said above, there was lots of information I’ll never have to use, but oh well.
