NYC to spend $209 million on energy savings in public housing

Officials will spend $209 million (Dh767.63m) of a $423 million federal stimulus-fund grant to reduce electricity and fuel consumption in public housing, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The programme, part of a long-range plan to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions 30 per cent by 2030, will include purchasing energy-efficient refrigerators, replacing roofs and otherwise improving the buildings to reduce the amount of energy required to heat and cool public housing units occupied by about 500,000 residents of the city.

Bloomberg announced the programme at Castle Hill Houses, a 14-building complex in the Bronx with 2,025 apartments built by the state in 1960. The city and federal government will spend $25m to reduce energy and water consumption that now costs $51 more than the average city public housing unit.

"On top of significant cost and energy savings, NYCHA will benefit by being able to utilise the freed-up funding, which can be used for much-needed repairs and ongoing maintenance at developments across the city,'' said Housing Authority Chairman John Rhea, in remarks prepared for the Castle Hill news conference.

Work at the complex, which began last year and will be completed next year, includes replacing eight 45-year-old boilers with five high-efficiency models; installing an instantaneous hot water heater in each building; repairing underground steam mains, and placing 4,108 high-efficiency fluorescent fixtures in hallways, stairwells, lobbies and the community centre.

The authority will also replace incandescent light bulbs with 17,414 compact fluorescent lights.

Officials expect to save about $1.2m in a public housing complex where energy costs have increased to $7m in 2008 from $4.4m in 2004, Rhea said.

The programme will decrease Castle Hill's annual electricity usage by about 15 per cent and carbon emissions by about 22 per cent, or 4,900 tons from its current 22,650 tons, Howard Marder, a Housing Authority spokesman, said.

The agency received $423m as part of the $787 billion stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which the US Congress approved and President Barack Obama signed in February.

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