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Question

Can you use electric tankless water heaters in a LEED home, and can use an electric radiant hydronic floor system?– No name given

Answer

From Batya Metalitz, U.S. Green Building Council, Residential Program Coordinator.

Any number of innovative water-heating and room-heating and cooling techniques can be employed in the LEED for Homes program. The important thing to remember is that the LEED Rating Systems are performance based, not product based. This means that it is the performance of the product – measured by energy efficiency, water efficiency, recycled content or any number of other green performance measures – that earns LEED credit, not necessarily the product type or brand name. For information on the performance-based specification for water heaters, please read Energy & Atmosphere Credit 7: Water Heating, or for information on space heating and cooling, see Energy & Atmosphere Credits 5 and 6 in the LEED for Homes Rating System.