How to Track Your Co-op’s Energy Efficiency Efforts
Photocredit: Deutsch Photography
Even though energy efficiency has been discussed for decades, it is only in the last few years that it is starting to gain traction. In New York City, the various energy laws and programs were launched during the Bloomberg administration. The first such law was Local Law 84, or benchmarking. The objective when this began in 2009 was to measure and gather data and then use that data to reduce and conserve.
"ꞮF YOU CAN’T MEASUƦE ꞮT, YOU CAN’T ꞮMPƦOVE ꞮT." - Peter Drucker
Local Law 84, amended by Local Law 133 of 2016, requires all buildings to report their energy and water usage. Benchmarking, or measuring and reporting, is a very good start to “greening” NYC and make the city more sustainable; however, just reporting energy usage and greenhouse gas is not enough if building owners do not use this data to improve. That’s why this law was later followed by Local Laws 87, 33, and 97.
LL87 requires retrofits, but many buildings didn’t actually do the retrofit that was recommended by their energy auditors / engineers
LL33 is the building energy score which basically “shames” all buildings that got a D, or an F, and are required to post it by the entrance
LL97 comes with massive fines for buildings that do not reduce carbon output and greenhouse gas. Building energy exchange has a calculator where you can see your building’s estimated fines if you do nothing to reduce its energy usage.
Here are some facts about benchmarking:
The benchmarking deadline is May 1st every year.
Although there are different rules for portfolios of buildings, all single-buildings greater than 25,000 sq ft need to comply.
The entire building’s energy (heating fuel and electricity) and water use need to be uploaded in the EnergyStar Portfolio Manager Tool. This includes the energy and water used by the residents inside the apartments and all commercial units. Using the automatic upload ensures that the data includes the use by residents and commercial units.
For a NYC building, Building performance LAB provides free education on how to report the data, which needs to include:
ConEd aggregate electric usage
ConEd or Natural Grid: cooking and heating gas
DEP: water and sewer usage
Our suggestion is to have a year-by-year comparison in a spreadsheet so that you can track the difference that your upgrades make over time: the aggregate building usage, including residences and commercial units, directly from the utility. However, there is no automatic upload function from the independent heating fuel providers.
The reason for manually tracking the usage year-by-year is two-fold:
It allows you to find incorrectly reported data
It allows you to see the progress of your retrofit
We hope this will help your building to adhere to the energy efficiency laws.
The Folson Group are energy efficiency consultants who optimize ways to reduce the amount of energy the building is using, making your building greener and more sustainable. From planning to execution and completion, their customers have reduced the cost of energy by up to 40% on the cost of your project. Email us at info@thefolsongroup.com or call us at (917) 648-8151 to find out more.