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Located in Yonkers, NY, Whitney Young Manor, is a notable affordable housing complex with 195 apartments across 234,000 square feet and 12 stories. Built in 1974, the housing complex is now undergoing a $22 million makeover focusing heavily on decarbonization upgrades. This renovation aims to modernize the buildings by improving insulation and introducing a new heating and cooling system that’s energy efficient. These changes are expected to lower the buildings’ carbon footprint, enhance living conditions, and reduce energy costs. The developer, Paths Development LLC, is leveraging the recapitalization cycle of the property to upgrade its infrastructure and include decarbonization measures to meet its climate goals. 

Noll Apartments, located at 43 Central Avenue, and Melrose Apartments, located at 63 Central Avenue, are neighboring buildings in Brooklyn, New York. The buildings are 6 stories and total 131,865 square feet with 98 affordable apartment units. The decarbonization retrofit planned for these buildings includes a package of measures that will: Combine all mechanical equipment into a single central plant serving both buildings which will facilitate thermal energy recovery, allow for the integration of future decarbonized thermal energy sources, and reduce first- and ongoing maintenance costs. Electrify, and recover energy for, loads currently served by fossil fuels (heating and domestic hot water). Improve the energy efficiency of the buildings by reducing thermal loads through ventilation energy recovery and envelope improvements Reduce construction costs by avoiding the staggering of measure implementation where possible. Creating resilient and sustainable communities are key components of RiseBoro’s mission. The principles of energy efficiency, improved health outcomes, reduced consumption, and responsible use of natural resources are core beliefs of the organization.

The goals of the retrofit project are to: Connect the commercial and residential heating, cooling, and domestic hot water thermal energy zones together to enable hydronic-based thermal heat recovery; Replace existing residential and commercial terminal units to enable low-temperature hydronic heating and improve, or maintain, cooling services; Recover energy for, and electrify, loads currently served by fossil fuels (heating and domestic hot water); Reduce construction costs by avoiding the staggering of measure implementationwherever possible; and Minimize negative impacts on operating costs while making substantial carbon emissions reductions.

The retrofit project at 865 East 167th Street is a planned decarbonization for a pre-war, affordable, multifamily building in the Bronx. The 6-story, 55-unit, 30,800 square feet building has no wall insulation, minimal assumed roof insulation, and a poor heating system served by an oil-fired steam boiler in the basement. This retrofit project will entail a full envelope refurbishment, installation of individual heat pumps serving apartments, and the cutting-edge implementation of a wastewater heat recovery system for domestic hot water production. In addition to reducing the whole building energy use and utility costs, this retrofit will improve the safety and comfort of tenants living in the building.

The Heritage, preserved by L+M, showcases a multifamily retrofit project that eliminates fossil fuel usage, improves resident comfort, and minimizes occupant disruption through the use of innovative retrofit methods, materials, and technology. The 34-story, three-building complex , which was built in 1974 next to Central Park in New York City, contains 600 housing units, of which 402 are affordable, with 134 set aside for the formerly unhoused. 

Talia Boyd was spending over $300 a month to keep her home just outside Asheville, North Carolina, cool this summer. It was an enormous sum for the single-wide trailer she shares with her baby daughter and teenage son. But now, the air leaks have been sealed, a door has been replaced, and a new heat pump has been installed — all at no cost to Boyd. Her monthly utility bill from Duke Energy has been cut in half, she said.

The Towers are two of 13 buildings that comprise AHC’s multifamily campus located in the Bronx. Many of the systems at the property, including the piping distribution system, are beyond their useful life and in poor condition, causing leaks and requiring continual repair and maintenance. The campus currently uses a central gas-powered boiler plant to produce steam for heating, cooling, and domestic hot water. As part of its recapitalization cycle, the property is embarking on a decarbonization journey which will include a comprehensive retrofit of the heating, cooling, and domestic hot water systems, an envelope upgrade, and onsite renewable generation in the form of geothermal and solar PV. This project will increase thermal comfort and secure utility affordability for its low-and-moderate income residents, as well as enhance the energy efficiency and climate resilience of the property.

The Mt. Pleasant retrofit project demonstrates an effective full-decarbonization roadmap for installing renewable ground-source space conditioning in existing multifamily buildings across New York City. Ascendant’s Mt. Pleasant is a nine story affordable, senior housing building built in 1996 in East Harlem. The decarbonization plan for this building includes envelope improvements in the form of added roof, window, and wall insulation, as well as a ground source heat pump system to be implemented in the rear yard and parking lot that will harness ground temperatures to heat and cool the building’s 50,003 square feet.

Today, carbon neutrality at 78 Herkimer and most all Chartered Properties’ multifamily portfolio will be achieved by replacing the gas-fired equipment currently serving the buildings. At Herkimer, twenty-nine in-unit combi-boilers will be decommissioned and replaced with electric powered thermal storage for domestic hot water and heat pumps for space conditioning.

Several phased in, low-carbon retrofit solutions are proposed for this site, including plans to electrify the heating system with packaged terminal heat pumps and a goal to electrify the domestic hot water system with condenser water heat recovery.