ENERGY AUDIT OF 107-37 166th Street

Prepared for: Greater Allen Cathedral Senior Residence

107-37 166th Street Jamaica, NY 11433

GROUP 3
Ana, Thelma
Cruz, Eric Jel
San Gabriel, Isaac Zoe
Sarmiento, Jinky
Uy, Mark Angelo
SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. Panotes, Romulo B. Jr.

SECTION:
ME-4A
Introduction
An energy audit was performed at 107-37 166th Street on February 12th, April 7th, and
April 14th of 2015 intended to meet the criteria of the ASHRAE Level 2 audit. This report
includes the findings in this audit, and also includes the results of the Preliminary Energy Use
Analysis. The audit included the six items listed in the ASHRAE Procedures for Building Energy
Audits, Level 2, which are:
1. Perform a walk-through survey of the facility.
2. Meet with the owner/operator and occupants of the facility to learn the special needs of the
facility. Determine if any maintenance problems or practices may affect efficiency.
3. Perform a space function analysis to determine if efficiency may be affected by functions that
differ from the original functional intent of the building.
4. Perform calculations to determine the approximate breakdown of energy use for significant
energy end-use categories, including weather and non-weather related uses.
5. Identify low-cost/no-cost changes to the facility or to the operating and maintenance
procedures, and determine the savings that will result from these changes.
6. Identify potential capital improvements for further study, and provide calculations of
potential costs and savings.

Additionally, this report contains the description of the building characteristics and an energy
end use summary as well as the following:
1. Discussion of irregularities found in the monthly energy use patterns, with suggestions about
their possible cause.
2. The energy index of similar buildings. A report of the source, size, and date of the sample
used in this comparison.
3. The method used to develop the target indices and the source of the information.
4. Total energy and demand cost by fuel type for the latest year and the preceding two years if
available. Potential energy savings in dollars.
5. The fraction of current costs that would be saved if the energy index were brought to the
target level. 6. A summary of any special problems or needs identified during the walk-through
survey, including possible revisions to operating procedures.
7. A preliminary energy use breakdown by major end uses. 8. The listing of low-cost/no-cost
changes with the savings for these improvements. 9. The potential capital improvements, with
an initial calculation of potential costs and savings.
Facility Description
STRUCTURE AND ENVELOPE
107-37 166th Street is an 82,000 ft2, 7-story, 109-unit building. Built in 2007, this senior
residence facility has a brick and mortar exterior with sheetrock interior. The walls and roof are
insulated and the roof is covered with a light waterproofing membrane. The windows are
double panel with aluminum frames. There is a single main entryway door to the lobby, and
several other exterior doors at the ground floor and rooftop levels.
Sources of air infiltration shown in figure 1, identified during the audit included the
exterior doors with damaged or missing weather-stripping. Boiler room combustion air is
provided via two fans that are set to operate whenever the boiler is firing however the damper
is not adequately sealed resulting in unwanted infiltration when the boiler is not firing.

Fig.1.Source of infiltration

HEATING SYSTEM
The base building heating system consists of two 122 HP, 3562 MBH hot-water boilers
shown in figure 2, manufactured by Smith Cast Iron Boilers, Model 28A-S/W-16. Natural gas is
the main source of fuel. The boilers were installed in 2007 and are in good condition. They are
set to maintain a water temperature of 250oF and provide hot water to the baseboards
throughout the building, equipped with programmable thermostats. Combustion air is provided
to the room via two 1/3 HP fans and an open vent equipped with a damper. The heating system
piping is insulated throughout the boiler room.

Fig.2. Water Boiler

The heating system is maintained by Hi-Tech Heating. The boiler is equipped with a Power Flame
dual fuel burner, Model C3-GO-25ATI. The burner is capable of full modulation and is set on automatic.
According to the heating contractor, the system is set up to operate on oil below 15oF, if necessary.
However, building staff has noted that the boilers have been operating on natural gas only. A steady-
state combustion efficiency test was conducted on the operating boiler and the results are displayed in
Table 1 below.

Table 1. Boiler Efficiency

 The boilers are controlled by two aquastat, one maintaining the water temperature in
the boiler at 250-degree F and a Honeywell aquastat maintaining the building supply
temperature at 180oF on the operating boiler and 164oF on the standby boiler. There is an
outdoor sensor, supply sensor, and return sensor that monitor the outdoor, supply, and return
temperatures, respectively, to adjust boiler runtime. There is a set of Siemens controllers
shown in figure 3, in the boiler room that control the various pumps of the heating system.

Fig. 3. Heating system pump controller

DOMESTIC HOT WATER

Domestic hot water is generated by the boilers used for space heating. There are two
250gallon hot water storage tanks shown in figure 4, manufactured by A.O. Smith, model
number TJV250ASD0R002001. From the storage tanks, hot water is then fed to a Holby mixing
valve and supplied to the building using two 1/12 HP recirculation pump. The DHW pipes have
been insulated.
 Fig. 4. Hot water storage tank

The supply temperature of the domestic hot water from the mixing valve to the building was
monitored for a week and the results are shown in figure 5.

Fig. 5. DHW Supply Temperature April 7, 2015 – April 14, 2015

 The supply temperature of the domestic hot water from the mixing valve ranges
between 1000F to 140oF as expected. DHW is usually supplied at a higher temperature to
ensure that it is approximately 120oF at the water fixtures. It was also measured in the
apartment and found to be 116.4oF.

PUMPS
The building is equipped with two 10 HP and two 3 HP hot water heating pumps shown
in figure 6, set to automatic. There are two 10 HP domestic water booster pumps set to manual
and DHW is circulated using two 1/12 HP pumps set to operate continuously. Additionally,
there is a 25 HP fire pump.

Fig. 6. Water pumps

COOLING SYSTEM
There are three cooling units shown in table 2, manufactured by Magic Aire that serve
the hallways and the office. The apartments are cooled by individual window units. Building
staff stated that the units are shut off during the winter and are set to 68oF in the summer.
 Table 2. Cooling unit for hallways and office

VENTILATION AND AIR-SIDE

Fig. 6a. AH1 SYSTEMS Fig. 6b. AH3
The building is mechanically ventilated via nine rooftop exhaust fans shown in figure 7,
serving apartment kitchens and bathrooms not equipped with operable windows. Bathroom
and kitchen exhaust fans are set to operate continuously and are fitted with ¼ HP motors.
 Fig. 7. Rooftop Exhaust Fan

BUILDING AUTOMATION SYSTEM

Building automation system are centralized software and hardware that monitor the
indoor environment and automatically adjust the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning
(HVAC) equipment to maintain the set points. The base building is not equipped with an
automation system. The HVAC system has local controls that are set based on occupants’
preferences.

ELEVATOR
The building has two hydraulic passenger
elevators equipped with modern controls
shown in figure 8 and 40 HP DC motors.
 Hydraulic elevators have been tested and shown to use up to 30 times more electricity
than traction elevators. Until the existing elevators can be replaced by energy efficient traction
elevators at the end of their useful lives, LED lighting should be installed in the buttons and in
the cab to reduce energy usage.

LIGHTING SYSTEMS
The building common area lighting shown in figure 9, consists mostly of T8 fluorescent
and compact fluorescent fixtures. Some fixtures are controlled with on/off switches, though
most of the common area lighting remains on 24 hours per day.

Fig. 9. Lighting Fixtures

METERING
Electricity is provided by Con Edison and is master-metered to the building. Quadlogic
has installed the MiniCloset-5 Multi-Tenant Digital Electric Meter to submeter electricity to the
tenants. Upon approval from the Public Service Commission, tenants will be billed for their
electricity consumption. Natural gas is used for heating, laundry driers, and cooking. It is
delivered by National Grid. The supplier utility bills were not provided and the rate has been
assumed for the utility analysis.

OTHER EQUIPMENT (Laundry, Refrigerators, Dishwashers, etc.)

There is a communal laundry room in the basement shown in figure 10, that contains 7
gas powered driers and 4 conventional top loading washing machines and 4 conventional front
loading washing machines. The apartments are equipped with conventional Frigidaire
refrigerators.

Fig. 10. Laundry Room Appliances

Energy Usage Analysis

The building uses natural gas distributed by National Grid for heating and domestic hot
water. Building electric use is for common area lighting and mechanical systems such as
elevator, domestic water pumps and fan motors in addition to the tenants’ use for lighting,
cooling, ventilation, and plug loads.

Converting the electric kWh and gas therms results in a total energy use of 7,261,000 kBTU/Yr.
This data is used to determine the Energy Use Index (EUI) of the facility, which is expressed in
thousands of BTUs per square foot per year (kBTU/ft2/yr). The building occupied area is
approximately 82,000 gross space square feet. This yields a site EUI of 89 kBTU/ft2/yr, and a
source EUI of 148. Additionally, the heating slope was estimated at 8.5 BTU/SF/HDD. As shown
in figure 20, according to the US National median source EUI table released by Energy STAR, the
median source EUI for this type of building is 243.2 kBtu/ft2. The median heating slope from
GES’ portfolio of buildings analyzed in 2013 per Local Law 87 is 8.35. This indicates that 107-37
166th Street already performs well in the energy efficiency category, but there are still some
specific building systems that could be improved from the cost-effective measures presented
below (table 3 and table 4).

Table 3. Energy Use Performance Matrix

Table 4. Energy Consumption and Cost

 Fig. 11. Energy Performance Comparison (Based on GES analysis and 30 NYC building)

Figure 12 shows a fairly typical heating and DHW profile with demand peaking in the
winter months and the baseload DHW demand hovering just under $2,000 a month. Note that
for this analysis, the supply charges for natural gas were not provided by the client and have
been estimated at $0.60 per therm. Figure 12 shows the heating and DHW fuel consumption
from 2013 to 2014.

Fig. 12. Heating and Domestic Hot Water – Monthly Cost

The natural gas consumption shown in figure 13, increased in the beginning of the year
from 2013 to 2014, the consumption decreased at the end of the year, which is likely due to the
more severe weather at the beginning of the year. Overall, the natural gas consumption
decreased by 8.5% from 2013 to 2014.
 Fig. 13. Natural Gas Consumption

Figure 14 shows a fairly typical profile of building electricity use with peaks during the summer
cooling months. The high cost in the winter months are due to the electricity consumption of
the hydronic system equipment.
 Fig. 14. Building Electricity Monthly Use

In Figure 15, the electricity consumption is within the same range from February to August and
increases from September to January. Overall, the electricity usage increased by 8.2% from
2013 to 2014.

Fig. 15. Building Monthly Electricity Consumption

Energy End Use Allocation
The end use allocation shown in figure 16, was estimated using the summertime domestic hot
water load as a baseline, and attributing any additional usage of boiler fuel to space heating
across the 2014 year. Electric cooling was similarly derived by measuring the summer spikes
above the electric account baseline, made up of lighting, pumps, fans and plug loads. Laundry
and cooking gas usage is tracked by its own meter.

Fig. 16. Annual Energy Consumption by end use

Fig. 17. Annual Energy Cost by end use

Figure 16 and Figure 17 shows the energy usage and cost breakdowns, respectively, by end use
application across the entire building. In all, 107-37 166th Street and its residents spent
approximately $152,693 on 7,261 MMBTU of energy in 2014. Nearly three quarters of the
building’s energy consumption can be attributed to heating and domestic hot water heating.
These combined end uses contribute to approximately a third of the total energy costs,
electricity for cooling, lighting, pumps, fans and plug loads accounting for about two-thirds of
energy costs. This discrepancy between cost and consumption occurs because electricity is
much more expensive than natural gas on a per-kBTU basis.