Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has created a blueprint, called PlaNYC, to control future development in the city, with a goal of reducing total greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 by 30 percent, compared with 2005 levels.
While some reductions can be accomplished by toughening the requirements for new construction, about 85 percent of the buildings that will exist in the city in 2030 are already standing.
And those buildings need to go on an energy diet.
In fact, there are a number of relatively inexpensive things that residential buildings could do that would immediately lower their energy costs and that would reduce their “carbon footprints,” the emissions these buildings are responsible for.
As it stands, very few apartment buildings in New York have taken the first step and hired energy consultants. And the first step most consultants suggest is to switch to fluorescent bulbs (a cheap fix), and then to solve the heating problems (to keep residents from being uncomfortable).
At 395 Riverside Drive, a 15-story co-op at the corner of 112th Street, the apartments on the west side of the building were often cold because of wintertime blasts of wind off the Hudson River. If the heat was turned up to offset the cold, apartments on the east side of the building got too hot.
The board at 395 Riverside Drive ordered an energy audit from the Association for Energy Affordability, based in Manhattan, which recommended installing additional heat sensors and upgrading the computer that regulated the heat.
These changes were made last fall, at a cost of almost $8,000. The building paid $8,500 less on fuel bills, a decrease of nearly 16 percent, from December 2006 to April 2007, despite a spike in heating oil prices, according to the building’s management company.
And the residents were more comfortable, said Dr. Eric Linden, a periodontist who is a former vice president of the co-op board.
Remarkably, the age of a building seems to have no correlation with how energy efficient or inefficient it is. Some of New York City’s most efficient are old brick-and-mortar buildings “that just have amazingly good maintenance staff,” said Michael Colgrove, a senior project manager at New York State Energy Research Authority, whose goal is to make multifamily buildings more efficient.On the flip side, Mr. Colgrove said, owners in condominiums built 5 or 10 years ago should not be complacent. “Almost all new construction in this city can easily improve their energy efficiency by 20 percent,” he said.
Jonathan F. P. Rose, a New York developer who specializes in energy-efficient construction, said the public is much more aware of environmental issues like global warming than it was a few years ago. And Mr. Rose said that older condos and co-ops could distinguish themselves with “energy smart building” certificates if they successfully completed the new state energy-efficiency program and cut their energy use by 20 percent.
“This isn’t a fad,” Mr. Rose said. “I think this is a cultural transition. In the future, I think there will be such a preference for green buildings that those buildings will have an edge.”
Sometimes, New York State Will Help Pay the Bill
The New York State Energy Research Authority has revamped its program that provides financial and technical assistance to multifamily buildings with five units or more, whether they are rentals, co-ops or condos. One of the authority’s most popular incentives is its low-cost loans to finance major capital improvements. The state will pick up most of the interest costs: for example, on an 8 percent loan, the state will pay 6.5 percentage points and the building 1.5 percentage points.
More information and applications can be found at www.getenergysmart.org. The site also has a list of energy auditors, who usually know about other incentives offered by utility companies and government agencies.
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