Huge World Wide Demand!
Lots of room for small businesses.
Can your business be part of this?
In this post:
Better Buildings, Block by Block,
Reversing Climate Change, One Building At A Time – Bloc Power
$20B BUILDING ENERGY RETROFIT MARKET,
Retrofit cuts energy use by 36 percent at Lisbon’s Historic City Hall
Theres lots to think about when setting up a retrofit business.
A Closer Look at Energy Retrofit Financing,
City Energy Project Resource Library
Heat pumps could satisfy 90% of global heating needs
What to do with your old boiler? Do not waste WASTE revenue.
above image: My Zero Energy Retrofit Beats my 401(k) “The return on investment is over double the return on my retirement investments this year.”
Urban Energy Retrofits
Let’s stop talking about it! >>> Let’s do it!
Big Demand
Everyone is in meetings, seminars, conferences, forums, zooms to talk about the climate problems of cities…..but you don’t hear of solutions very often….especially solutions that will support ALL the people who live in urban areas….. “Urban Retrofits” is one solution that every community, worldwide needs to help us harmonize with planet Earth. Can your business get on-board?
What is Urban retrofit?
Energy and water efficiency retrofits are upgrades, changes, improvements to your building that reduce energy and/or water use and improve how your building operates. Retrofit projects range from something simple like updating the lighting in your common area to larger projects, like replacing your boiler.
Better Buildings, Block by Block
Reduce utility bills and improve housing quality through energy and water retrofits for your building. << This is what New York City is doing!
If New York can do it….all communities can!
Great start for every community on planet Earth!
What is Community Retrofit NYC?
Community Retrofit NYC is a program provided by the City of New York that offers free advisory services to owners, operators, and residents of small- and mid-sized multifamily buildings to undertake energy and water upgrades in their buildings.
Does this program work with condos and co-ops?
Absolutely! Our program serves all multifamily buildings with 5 to 50 units, regardless of ownership structure.
What assistance does Community Retrofit NYC provide?
A team of building experts will work directly with building owners and decision-makers in to:
>>Identify and select appropriate energy & water upgrade projects
>>Find financing and such as the Green Housing Preservation Program
>>Assist in selection of qualified contractors and service providers
>>Connect with training opportunities for building operators
>>Advise during project implementation and construction
[All the things that Bloc Power can help with.]
How do building owners and residents pay for energy and water upgrades?
Many energy and water upgrades pay for themselves within a reasonable payback period. However, if building owners do not have the upfront capital to pay for the efficiency upgrades or have additional property needs, there are many financing and incentive options building owners can access to help cover costs. These include the City’s new Green Housing Preservation Program.
How much does Community Retrofit NYC assistance cost?
Nothing! Community Retrofit NYC is a free service provided by the City of New York for the owners and residents of buildings in Central Brooklyn and Southern Queens.
What is the Green Housing Preservation Program?
The Green Housing Preservation Program is NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s new program to provide low and no-cost financing for energy efficiency and water conservation improvements, and moderate rehabilitation of small- to mid-sized multifamily buildings (more than 5 units and less than 50,000 square feet) in exchange for a commitment to affordability. Based on a typical scope of work, buildings may be able to reduce their utility costs by 10% or more.
Why did the City create Community Retrofit NYC?
Community Retrofit NYC is part of Mayor de Blasio’s commitment to reduce citywide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2050 (80×50). The energy used in buildings accounts for nearly three-quarters of citywide GHG emissions, so scaling up energy efficiency retrofits in existing buildings is essential to achieving this goal.
Community Retrofit NYC is also a key component of the Mayor’s commitment to preserving housing affordability. Utility and fuel costs account for almost 25 percent of operating costs in a typical residential building. Improving the energy and water efficiency of buildings mitigates rising building operating costs, which can translate to cost-savings for residents and frees up capital to make other investments in a building.
Urban Energy Retrofits
Reversing Climate Change, One Building At A Time
October 2020 – When Donnel Baird was in his twenties, he had twin passions, and he didn’t want to choose between them. “I vowed that I was going to try to combine my passion for Black civil rights with trying to do something about climate change,” he says.
He’s doing it now, with a company that he founded called BlocPower. He’s attacking one of the seemingly intractable sources of America’s greenhouse emissions: old residential buildings. And he’s focusing on neighborhoods that don’t have a lot of money to invest.
Baird wants to show me how it’s done. So we meet in New York City, in front of a classic Brooklyn brownstone in the Crown Heights neighborhood. “It’s still largely African American, West Indian,” Baird says of the building’s residents.
The building is four stories tall, with two apartments on each floor. It’s a cooperative that’s legally designated as affordable housing. BlocPower looked at this building and saw a business opportunity.
“We thought that they were wasting a lot of money paying for natural gas, which they were using for heating; also to heat their hot water,” he says.
Baird’s company went to the people who live here, the coop owners, with a proposal. BlocPower offered to manage the building’s heating and cooling. The company would install new equipment, and put solar panels on the roof. “Solar panels aren’t just for rich people, or for White people. They’re for everybody,” Baird says.
The best part: The residents wouldn’t have to pay anything up-front. In fact, BlocPower promised that their bills would go down. And they’d be helping the planet, with lower greenhouse emissions.
Shaughn Dolcy, who lives in this building, was sold. “It’s the only way to go,” he says. “There’s no other way.” He says most of his neighbors liked it, too. “I would say 90 percent” of them, he says. “You maybe had, like, one particular family, they weren’t really interested in getting anything progressive or new. They were on-board at the end of the day, though.”
So BlocPower went to work. The company tore out the gas-burning boiler in the basement and installed a set of efficient electric-powered heat pumps instead. Heat pumps capture heat and move it from one space to another, in either direction: during winter they heat a home, and in summer they cool it. BlocPower put up the solar panels, elevated high enough that people still can gather for parties underneath them.
“The result is, they save tens of thousands of dollars a year on their energy costs,” Baird says. Yet they’re still paying enough that BlocPower can earn back its investment. The new equipment saves that much money.
BlocPower is a Brooklyn-based energy technology startup rapidly greening American cities. Since its founding in 2012, the company has completed energy projects in nearly 1,000 buildings and delivers results ahead of schedule and under budget. BlocPower utilizes its proprietary software for analysis, leasing, project management, and monitoring of urban clean energy projects and its customers are saving 20-40% on their energy bills each year.
The BlocPower Lease Benefits
No money down. No loan.
Low, predictable monthly payments.
15-year performance guarantee.
Regular maintenance included in lease.
No lien on building.
This is the way to go, World!
Donnel Baird describes how BlocPower connects construction projects with workers in low-income areas.
and maybe a “ZERO electric bill” from the grid!
An innovative start-up, BlocPower, is bringing green-energy solutions to one of the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn – Brownsville. It is environmentally friendly and cost-effective.
You can do it anywhere in the World! There is no excuse.
Notice from Bloc Power: The COVID-19 Pandemic is Accelerating the Indoor Air Quality and Health Crisis in Multifamily Buildings (Read More)
Urban Energy Retrofits
$20B BUILDING ENERGY RETROFIT MARKET
June 2019 – Local Law 97 of 2019 is the largest disruption in our lifetime of the New York City real estate industry. The law sets tough carbon caps for buildings starting in 2024, and even more aggressive caps in 2030. …
…We found that if all building owners choose retrofits to comply with the new law, a new $20B retrofit market will be required over the course of the next decade; that’s 13 times larger than today’s annual market. (For comparison consider that the global smartphone industry grew at a multiple of 12 over the last decade.) In addition, David Hsu from MIT estimates that the law will create 141,000 new jobs in the NYC metro area by 2030.
Data like this fills a critical need. It defines market opportunity so that new technologies and business models can be generated, and the skilled labor necessary to meet demand will be ready. A functioning market with a smooth growth trajectory can produce less costly retrofits.
With 50,000 buildings covered under the new law, NYC is about to become the largest retrofit market in the country, if not the world. What we need now is a level of innovation, business expansion, and workforce development to match this opportunity—and drive down carbon emissions efficiently. Read our complete analysis here.
Retrofit cuts energy use by 36 percent at Lisbon’s City Hall
and grid electricity usage by half……………….
Energy consumption at Lisbon’s historic City Hall has reduced by 36 percent through what has been hailed as the first deep energy-efficiency retrofit for a heritage building in Portugal. The achievement could pave the way for replication in other cities.
Interventions to reduce energy usage included replacing the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, switching to LED lighting, installing solar panels and deploying advanced energy management tools.
Lisbon’s City Hall, which was completed in 1880 and is home to the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon, the Mayor and over 100 staff, was among the five most energy-consuming buildings owned by the municipality. …
…New data from the building retrofit initiative shows that between June 2019 and February 2020, energy consumption at City Hall was reduced by 36 percent (in killowatt-hours/KwH), and electricity usage from the grid decreased by half, from 500 megawatts in 2016 to less than 250 megawatts in 2019. On average, 90 percent of energy from solar generation was used within City Hall.
There are lots of things to think about ………..
In your business, if you can put together a program similar to Bloc Power‘s:
>No money down. No loan.
>Low, predictable monthly payments.
>15-year performance guarantee.
>Regular maintenance included in lease.
>No lien on building.
There are lots of things to think about …………
>>A Closer Look at Energy Retrofit Financing
More aggressive approaches to funding are needed in order to meet long-term climate goals, according to a recent ACEEE webinar.
September 2020 – Mandatory building performance standards for energy efficiency and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions have been established or considered in several U.S. cities and states and across the globe. But, in order to meet long-term climate goals, more aggressive approaches to funding retrofits are needed, according to participants in a recent American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy webinar.
Moderator Steve Nadel, ACEEE executive director, noted that, at the current rate, it would take about 500 years to retrofit all residential properties and 67 years to complete energy-efficient retrofits on all commercial buildings. …
… Alfred Griffin, CEO, NY Green Bank, who oversees partnerships with private sector capital providers to encourage private investments in renewable energy and energy-efficient projects, said that even though the NY Green Bank has closed more than $1 billion in transactions since it was established by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2013, he would like to see more deals. “Where there is good policy and good regulatory framework, market activity will be stimulated,” he noted. …
>>CITY ENERGY PROJECT RESOURCE LIBRARY
The City Energy Project partnered with 20 cities and counties across the U.S. to create and implement customized, impactful energy efficiency policies and programs. The lessons learned, and best-in-class practices are now distilled into the City Energy Project Resource Library.
Browse the City Energy Project Resource Library
This curated set of resources contains the necessary blueprints for any city government to craft and implement customized solutions to productively manage energy efficiency initiatives across commercial, multifamily, and public buildings.
UNDERSTAND BUILDING ENERGY USE
PRIORITIZE POLICIES, CODES AND CITY FINANCIAL OPTIONS
REACH COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS
COMMUNICATE PROGRESS AND RESULTS
The City Energy Project is a national initiative to create healthier and more prosperous American cities by improving the energy efficiency of buildings. Working in partnership, the Project and cities support innovative, practical solutions that cut energy waste, boost local economies, and reduce harmful pollution. The pioneering actions of the 20 cities involved in the City Energy Project will be models for communities nationwide and around the world.
Solar becomes the new king of electricity…
– the International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook 2020
October 2020 – Renewables grow rapidly in all our scenarios, with solar at the centre of this new constellation of electricity generation technologies. Supportive policies and maturing technologies are enabling very cheap access to capital in leading markets. With sharp cost reductions over the past decade, solar PV is consistently cheaper than new coal- or gasfired power plants in most countries, and solar projects now offer some of the lowest cost electricity ever seen. …
>>Heat pumps could satisfy 90% of global heating needs
with a lower carbon footprint than gas-fired condensing boilers
– the International Energy Agency
Electric heat pumps still meet no more than 5% of heating needs in buildings globally, yet they could supply more than 90% of global space and water heating with lower CO2 emissions (even when the upstream carbon intensity of electricity is taken into account) than condensing gas boiler technology (which typically operates at 92-95% efficiency).
Why heat pumps are a technology for the future from the IEA, Technology Collaboration Programme
Sustainable energy systems of the future will rely on two major principles: efficient end-use and efficient use of renewables. In this scenario, the heat pump is a brilliant invention which is beautifully adaptable for a multitude of applications relating to both efficient end-use and renewably supply. The energy source used by a heat pump is renewable energy from ground, air, water and waste heat sources.
… According to the International Energy Agency, IEA, the global CO2 emissions must be reduced by more than one half in comparison with the 2015 levels in order to limit the increase in global temperature. Cities are at the heart of the decarbonisation effort. The challenge is to achieve this reduction while at the same time energy demand is rising from an increasing number of both residential and commercial buildings. This challenge can be met by the heat pump technology, employing it in a wide range of applications in terms of heating, cooling and air conditioning.
Heat pumps are a suitable solution for retrofit buildings. Therefore, heat pumps have a large potential in contributing to the reduction of global CO2 emissions.
Efficiency and heat pumping application
There are a number of factors that will affect the efficiency of a heat pump. Major improvements in the efficiency of heat pump systems have been achieved through developments in the fields of heat exchangers, compressors, motors, motor drives and controls. Currently, the best opportunities for improving efficiency are in optimizing the sources and sinks, minimizing auxiliary drive powers and optimizing the temperature and capacity controls. Therefore, when choosing a heat pump and the related sources and sinks, the following things have to be considered:
Climate – The indoor and outdoor climates and the indoor heat loads will decide the annual heating and cooling demand and maximum peak loads;
Temperature – The temperatures of the heat source and distribution systems for heating and cooling affect the COP and the capacity of the heat pump;
Auxiliary equipment – Energy consuming auxiliary equipment such as pumps, fans and supplementary heat for bivalent systems could have a much larger impact on system efficiency than is commonly perceived;
Technology – System design and selection of components such as motors, compressors and heat exchangers have a decisive influence on the operating characteristics of the heat pump;
Size – Sizing of the heat pump and its components in relation to the heat demand will affect energy coverage and part-load operation;
Control system – The heat pump control system will affect how closely supply and demand for heating and cooling will match and how closely the actual operating temperatures will be to the theoretically optimal temperatures.
Natural refrigerants
Refrigerants based on substances that exist naturally in the environment are called natural refrigerants. These refrigerants generally have a low impact on the global environment, with both Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) at a zero or close-to-zero level. Therefore, these are viable options for long-term replacement of the synthetic CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs. However, in some applications they are related to other risks or challenges that must be handled. Commonly used natural refrigerants today are ammonia (NH3), hydrocarbons (HCs), carbon dioxide (CO2), air and water.
Welcome to the Technology Collaboration Programme on Heat Pumping Technologies by IEA (HPT TCP), and Heat Pump Centre. Heat Pump Centre is an international information service for heat pumping technologies, applications and markets. The goal is to accelerate the implementation of heat pumps and related heat pumping technologies, including air conditioning and refrigeration.
Remember that there is money to be had from the WASTE….you just need to find it. – discounts, labor maybe, if not cash.
>>What to do with your old boiler
How to remove your old boiler
How to get rid of your old boiler
Can I take my old boiler to the tip?
Can I sell my old boiler for scrap? [Remember other wastes too!]
Trash Can Willys specializes in furnace removals coming out of basements.
Veteran Owned – Better Business Bureau Approved
Our personnel are well trained and equipped to handle any furnace removal with grace and efficiency. We have successfully removed now over 136 heavy furnaces from customers basements during the course of 8 years in business.
We carry all needed insurances so our crew and your home are covered if something should go wrong. Out of 130+ furnace removals we have had one accident, a chipped stair. Thats a pretty good record. You can have peace of mind when having Trash Can Willys handle your furnace removal.
We always offer upfront pricing that we guarantee to be the lowest price you will find, we beat any written estimate by a minimum of 10%. We also offer substantial discounts if we can recycle, repurpose, or resell your unwanted items giving true meaning to the old saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” ?
Providing junk removal services and junk hauling to New Hampshire and Massachusetts
Water Heater Tank Removal & Furnace Disposal Services.
Water heater tanks, furnaces, and boilers are in a special class of their own. The same goes for air-conditioning, duct work, heck, anything in the heating and cooling of your home or business, it’s bound to break or need replacing.
Awkward, heavy, usually leaking something, and always sure to have sharp corners ready to cut, tear, and damage anything in its path.
This is why you want MrJunk’s expert 5-star rated crew to come haul these items away. From commercial buildings like offices and schools with multiple tanks and furnaces, to the individual home owner, these systems are not built to last forever, so when they go, we need to get rid of them.
MrJunk does all the loading, lifting, clean up, and proper recycling disposal for you. We will show up on your time, give a free fair quote for removal, and be out of your way before you know it.
If New York City has figured it out….all communities can!
Urban Energy Retrofits
posts about wind, waves and Retrofits / emissions renovations…..
I Say The Future Is VERTICAL Axis Wind Turbines!
WIND POWER Back Down To Earth – VAWT
Shipping’s Carbon Footprint – Your Small Business >> Your Vote
Wave Power Is Very Very “Energy Dense”!
Climate Retrofits On Land Or At Sea
Urban Energy Retrofits For Existing Buildings
CLEAN AIR – IS, ALREADY – IN OUR GRASP!
Local Law 97 NYC states beginning 2024 buildings over 25,000 square feet will have to meet carbon emissions limits per occupancy group.