the way that LEED works is not to dictate the number of fixtures put into place but instead to determine if through use of more efficient fixtures you are able to reduce the baseline consumption of water by those fixtures. LEED assumes based on the occupancy of the building that there will be a particular usage rate by each occupant and that is what you use to come up with the total usage.
just because a building that only needs 2 toilets by occupancy has 50 toilets doesn't mean that more water is going to be used. granted you have used more materials and resources to install those 48 toilets their presense doesn't hurt your expected water usage.
Is there an independent rating system that takes into account something like how many shower heads you provide per expected resident? Or something that gives you bonus points for not putting four toilets in a two-bedroom house?
Because it makes sense to me that LEED would provide points for using high-efficiency and very high efficiency faucets, shower heads, and toilets, but there should be some kind of system in place to curb an over-proliferation of water-using devices, shouldn't there? Of course, that could get complicated way too fast.
I guess it's the same problem with irrigation systems, in a way- you don't get any points for having a small amount of space that needs irrigating, because it's all judged as a percentage of the site as a whole. Another thing- I have never watered a lawn in my life, but you either have to provide an irrigation system, using grey water and stored rain water, or you have to get your landscaping designed so a professional will stamp it saying it needs no irrigating. I suppose a professional could stamp existing landscaping- say, a forest- and say that what you have doesn't need irrigating, but they haven't specifically addressed that yet.
