215 East 68th Street, New York Retrofit

215 East 68th Street is an approximately 1M+ square foot multifamily building in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Built in 1962 and spanning 32 floors, the building supports tenant heating, cooling, and domestic hot water needs through natural gas boilers and absorption chillers. As a result, the building burns fossil fuels for the entire year, putting the building in Local Law 97 penalty range starting in 2030. Rudin Management plans to retrofit the outdated system with new electric heat recovery chillers to offset natural gas usage and align with New York City’s electrification efforts. The new system eliminates the need for fossil fuel boilers to create cooling and domestic hot water in the summer. The building also intends to install “geo-ready” thermal taps to prepare for a potential future ground loop under the existing parking lot and heat recovery from the 24/7 building exhaust system. The project largely decarbonizes building operations and aligns the building with company-wide sustainability goals.

The last major cooling plant upgrade at 215 East 68th Street was in 2001 when three, low pressure steam absorption chillers were installed. Since then, NYC introduced new carbon emission limits as part of LL97. The new laws push for the electrification of buildings to mitigate significant financial penalties associated with burning fossil fuels. In the case of 215 East 68th Street, building ownership is facing annual penalties exceeding $250,000 per year starting in 2030. As a result, Rudin sees an opportunity to replace the fossil-fuel cooling plant with an electric plant that generates domestic hot water and recovers building waste heat. The new system eliminates the 2030 penalty entirely and significantly reduces the building energy use intensity (EUI).

The central cooling plant at 215 East 68th Street is nearing the end of its useful life, prompting Rudin Management to consider the best plan for the buildings plant. The cheapest and simplest approach would be to replace existing low pressure steam absorbers in kind. Weighing the LL97 penalties starting in 2030, the building saw an opportunity to implement a new and electric heat recovery system to eliminate fines and decarbonize the building’s operations. While the electric heat recovery chillers carry a larger upfront cost, the cost of ownership over 30 years is lower than that of a fossil fuel system with a lower upfront cost but significant annual emissions penalties.