Energy Conservation: Retrofit of Urban Horizons

Applying High Performance, Green Building Strategies to Existing Buildings

Although this boiler room may have been state of the art in 1997 when the building was rehabilitated, we are considering a complete overhaul, including more efficient boilers and a combined heat & power generator (CHP), which converts natural gas to electricity and recaptures waste heat for use in the building.

WHEDCo is currently in the second year of an initiative to make energy-efficient modifications on our flagship, Urban Horizons, to demonstrate that affordable housing can be retrofitted to reduce both energy costs and harmful carbon emissions.

The goal of the Green Retrofit Project is to lower energy costs by implementing energy efficient technologies and replacing energy wasting appliances with green models. We have already made a series of low cost modifications to the building, including new light bulbs, LED exit signs, motion sensors in stairwells, low-flow showerheads, faucet aerators, and Energy Star refrigerators. We plan on installing bi-level lighting controls, low flush toilets, advanced metering, and a state-of-the-art combined heat and power (CHP) micro-turbine. It is expected that a $1 million investment in upgrading our building systems will result in annual savings in excess of $150,000 -- paying back the investment in 6.4 years.

Apartments at Urban Horizons are individually metered. Advanced metering has the potential to take advantage of lower electricity rates, allowing us to pass along savings to residents.

WHEDCo's Green Retrofit Project is catalyzed by both environmental pressures and skyrocketing utility costs. These staggering increases impact both WHEDCo, as a non-profit building owner, and our struggling tenants, for whom each dollar saved in utility costs enables them to buy essential goods and health care.

WHEDCo’s Green Retrofit Project is serving as a model for how existing affordable housing stock can be adapted to save costs for low-income New Yorkers and to better serve the environment.  Energy savings related to each upgrade are being carefully measured and our findings will be shared at conferences and through publication.  See Nancy Biberman's article in the Gotham Gazette.

For more information on WHEDCo's green new construction buildings, vist Intervale Green and Louis Nine House.