Evaluating and Validating New York City Housing Authority’s Clean Heat for All Program

A window with a heat pump at the bottom. The outside view is on a brick wall.

Photos from Cycle Retrotech

A window with a heat pump at the bottom. The inside view is inside a room

Project Information

Team Partners

Team Lead: Cycle Retrotech
Research Member: Syracuse University
Implementation Member: New York City Housing Authority
Industry Member: Laborers’ International Union Local 79

Location

New York, New York

Anticipated Completion

Mid-2026

Challenge to Solve

This Building America Retrofit Solutions team is engaging in creative problem-solving to reduce the cost of energy-efficient retrofits.

Building owners across the country face gaps between their physical needs and available funds. They are also under time constraints. For example, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) must decarbonize on average more than 7,000 apartments per year to meet its sustainability goals.

To address these issues, building owners must know which retrofit solutions have the greatest value. The project team aims to help by studying the value of incremental (one-at-a-time) approaches compared to a comprehensive (all-at-once) approach, individual unit, and central system solutions to energy-efficiency upgrades.

Approach and Impact

The team will evaluate, validate, and compare the NYCHA’s Clean Heat for All program, which supports replacement of central heating systems with room-based window unit heat pumps, central domestic hot water system replacements, unitized heat pump solutions, variable refrigerant flow systems, and envelope upgrades to determine whether the program’s incremental techniques are a potential solution. To do this, the team will:

Analyze building and unit energy performance, cost performance, and maintenance and operations impact.
Evaluate and address program impacts on residents’ health, comfort, and convenience.
Assess and address workforce training needs for system installation and maintenance.
Study and compare technologies among other NYCHA electrification sites at various stages of implementation.
Compare the program to other NYCHA initiatives that take a comprehensive approach to renovations and retrofits.

By developing decision-making data for building owners like NYCHA, the team hopes to improve housing conditions.

About Building America Retrofit Solutions

As part of a Building Technologies Office initiative, the nine cross-sector Building America Retrofit Solutions teams are working on one- to three-year community-focused field validation and demonstration projects that will address hard-to-solve technical challenges of increasing efficiency, affordability, and comfort of existing homes.