If you manage or own a building built in the 1970s or before… please keep reading!
Steam heat is used in approximately 82% of buildings in New York City. Most of these buildings use a natural gas fired boiler and only 10% use ConEd Steam (https://www.ny-engineers.com/blog/steam-use-in-large-new-york-city-buildings).
The Urban Green Council has determined that upgrades to these steam systems is the best strategy to save energy in NYC and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (https://www.urbangreencouncil.org/).
Besides being maintenance nightmares, steam systems also have a poor response time to get up to temperature with dramatic weather changes and can be very uncomfortable for tenants.
Many buildings built in the 1970s and 1960s are candidates for a boiler upgrade. The smartest way to go about this is to improve the windows and building envelope BEFORE an expensive HVAC upgrade is made.
The best return on investment strategy is to retrofit the existing windows and reduce the capacity or a replacement system by 30% to 40%.
Interior Window Retrofits present the most cost effective way of achieving high thermal performance at a very low cost especially in buildings with single pane glass. These systems comply with the New York City Energy Conservation Code 2020 (NYC ECC 2020) https://www1.nyc.gov/site/buildings/codes/2020-energy-conservation-code.page and qualify for custom incentives from ConEd on electric savings and natural gas savings. Large office buildings can realize a $1 million dollar rebate on a $5 million dollar project for example.
Lastly, Local Law 97 mandates that buildings reduce their energy consumption by 40% or face significant monetary penalties. A simple window retrofit and boiler upgrades will achieve this 40% in almost all cases in buildings with single pane glass.
Working direct with Thermolite on the window upgrades FIRST and then a local engineering company on HVAC upgrades / replacement SECOND is a simple process and will change the economics of your utility costs in a profoundly positive way.
