Room Heat Pumps in Action: An Affordable Electrification Path

Join us for an inside look at NYCHA's first Clean Heat for All window heat pump electrification project. This exciting NYCHA electrification pilot, led by NYCHA's Sustainability team, pioneered a low-impact, tenants-in-place approach to electrification at a 6-story, 48-unit building, with the hope of scaling to 20,000 units across the NYCHA portfolio. During the tour, Jordan will walk us through the project, sharing early quantitative data on energy savings, along with qualitative insights and lessons learned from the renovation. This tour offers a valuable opportunity to explore the project's innovative approach and how it can support scalable, tenant-centered electrification retrofits to help existing buildings meet Local Law 97 emissions requirements. Room/Window heat pumps have the advantage of very quick installation, which means electrification can happen with tenants in place, and various additional components of decarbonization, such as weatherization, window replacement, domestic hot water (DHW) electrification, and electric infrastructure reconditioning, could be staged to reduce disruption to tenants. Eliminating the cost of relocating the tenants is a huge money saver. Room/window heat pumps run on 120VAC, so do not require major electric upgrades. They are sealed systems that can be installed without having to re-pipe the building distribution system, and do not require new penetrations through the building envelope. In addition to the window heat pumps, the project also replaced the double-hung aluminum windows with new uPVC triple-pane casement windows, and installed an air-to-water heat pump for domestic hot water. Technical and financial solutions to separate heating and cooling costs between landlords and tenants exist. Generous incentives and financing programs for these units are currently available: https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Room-Heat-Pump-Program Location-50-51 Broadway, Woodside, NY 11377, USA