As 2022 is drawing to a close, we would like to remind you of upcoming key dates regarding compliance with energy Local Laws:

October 1, 2022: This year’s NYC Building Energy Efficiency Rating label becomes available

How to download the letter grade:

• 1. Go to the DOB: Safety website.
  2. Scroll down to Get your Building Energy Efficiency Rating. 
  3. Enter your building’s Borough, Block Number, and Lot Number.
  4. If your letter grade is N, you’re done! Buildings with an N grade are not required to display their letter grade. Otherwise, you have to download and post it by…

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A building energy audit is a process of determining how a facility uses energy, the types of energy used, the energy cost, and identifying opportunities to reduce consumption without decreasing occupants’ thermal comfort or life safety.  New York City (NYC) Local Law 87 (Energy Audits and Retro-Commissioning) mandates periodic energy audits for buildings that exceed 50,000 square feet.  The New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) and local utility companies require an energy audit as a requirement for participation in some of their utility incentive programs.  And NYC Local Law 97 (Carbon Emission Limits), scheduled to be implemented in 2024, will require some level of energy auditing to determine a property owner’s actual carbon emission and potential financial penalties.

Types of Building Energy Audits

An energy audit is often also referred to as an energy assessment, survey, evaluation, or investigation. There are four commonly accepted types:

• Level-0 (Benchmarking Audit or ASHRAE Preliminary Energy-Use Analysis):

This audit is an analysis of energy use and cost to determine a benchmark index such as Btu (British Thermal Unit) per square foot per year. It involves analyzing annual utility bills and is relatively quick for simple building layouts. NYC Local Law 84 (Energy Benchmarking) requires annual benchmarking submissions for buildings exceeding 10,000 sq. ft.

• Level-1 (Walk-Through or ASHRAE Level-1):

This audit involves a cursory Level-0 analysis and quick identification of recommended energy improvement measures that are no-cost or low-cost. On-site surveying is limited to a few hours with a small team of auditors, and the survey cost is small. Estimated energy savings and implementation costs are rough estimates. A Level-1 audit is ideal to determine if a building has potential energy reduction and cost savings. If a building does not, the auditing effort is ended with no further resources expanded. If a building has potential, a higher auditing effort is necessary to quantify that potential.

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While firestopping and firestopping inspections have been required for a long time, they are not always given the attention they deserve. The A/E industry has developed a false sense of comfort in simply seeing the red goop (intumescent fire sealant). It is not that the industry does not think fire stopping is important, the issue is that there is a lack of understanding of the basic requirements. Currently, there is a renewed effort by municipalities to ensure that firestopping and firestopping inspections are performed properly.

Let us look at what firestopping is, and why we should all be paying more attention to it.

Compartmentation is a passive fire protection system designed to impede the spread of fire and smoke. It is a key component of the life safety triangle and has been a Code requirement for many years. Firestopping is an enhancement of that system, it is used to seal around openings and between joints in a fire-resistance-rated wall or floor assembly; ensuring the fire rating of a compartment is achieved or maintained. Compartmentation, and the required separation of adjacent spaces, is the purview of the architect, as is the construction of the barriers to achieve the necessary separation and the sealing of joints between these barriers.

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Electrification may be the latest industry buzzword, but government agencies in New York have only increased the number of incentives programs which aim to reduce the state’s dependence on fossil fuels. If you have established electrification as part of your portfolio-wide energy strategy, consider using the funds the state has reserved to help you achieve your goals.

One of the state’s programs, NYS Clean Heat, promises funding for the most popular alternatives to oil- and gas-fired equipment: air-source heat pumps (which includes VRF) and geothermal (ground-source) heat pumps.

Eligibility Requirements
1. For Existing Buildings:
An active electric utility account.
2. For New Construction:
Design Phase – Intent to obtain a temporary utility account
Construction Phase – Temporary utility account
3. The site must be/will be occupied year-round
4. Installed heat pumps must be used for heating in order to offset existing fossil fuels (e.g. natural gas, oil, steam)
5. Heat pumps must be designed to provide domestic/service hot water heating and/or both space heating and cooling. Heat pumps used primarily for space cooling are not eligible.

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Collado Engineering has earned a 2021 Diamond Engineering Excellence Award in the category of Building/Technology Systems for its innovative design of a flood resistant Utility Services Building for Haven Plaza, a mid- to low-income housing complex on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The plant is part of a resiliency program to harden infrastructure for the complex, which was massively damaged in 2012 by Superstorm Sandy.

Presented by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) New York affiliate, the Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) are judged on a rigorous set of criteria, which includes complexity, innovation, and value to society. Diamond award winners from each state chapter can compete for ACEC’s prestigious Grand Conceptor award in February 2021.

“We are so pleased to be honored with the highest award in the Building Technology/Systems category for the Haven Plaza project. Our work has had an immediate and direct impact on average New Yorkers, providing them with the security that their lives would not be disrupted by another flooding event like Sandy,” said Andy Hlushko, President of Collado Engineering.

Financial support for the project was provided by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) under the City’s Build it Back program.

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With the tri-state area reopening amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many building owners and operators are looking for ways to mitigate the spread of the virus to building occupants. In addition to disinfection of commonly touched surfaces, social distancing, and screening procedures, the building’s HVAC system – the respiratory system of the building – has come under scrutiny as a potential mechanism for circulating contaminants throughout the building. Vapor droplets suspended in the air are the primary carriers of viruses, so their removal is key to slowing the spread of infection. While no one approach offers a silver bullet for stopping the spread of airborne particles, each will reduce the likelihood of transmission.

What Options Do I Have?
The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) sets the standards for indoor air quality. While ASHRAE’s list of recommendations for air treatment options pertain mostly to healthcare facilities with high risk of disease transmission, these approaches can be implemented by any building.

Filtration: Removing contaminants from the airstream to prevent them from recirculating throughout the system.
Dilution: Increasing the amount of outside (ventilation) air to reduce concentrations of contaminants.
Elimination: Deactivating or destroying living biological contagions in the air stream.
Environment: Maintaining the proper indoor ambient air conditions that are unfavorable for contagions.

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In response to New York State’s pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, New York City has passed legislation to limit emissions from new and existing buildings. Local Law 97 is part of a package of legislation, The Climate Mobilization Act, that has been covered in our previous article http://collado-eng.com/new-york-citys-climate-mobilization-act/. This local law has the potential to be the largest disruption to NYC’s built environment in decades. Buildings are responsible for about 70 percent of the city’s emissions and as a result, will be the focus of efforts to reduce environmental impacts.

Key Points:

• If your building(s) are over 25,000 square feet or combine for over 50,000 square feet on the same tax lot, you will be required to comply.
• Building emission limits will be based on square footage and occupancy type of your building.
• Tons of carbon emissions equivalent (tCO2e) levels are derived from your total utility consumption, including directly metered tenants.
• Buildings with at least one rent stabilized apartment will be required to implement a prescriptive set of upgrades leading up to 2035.
• NYC’s Department of Buildings will implement a new Office of Building Energy and Emissions Performance.
• This local law is still under development by the appointed advisory committee. Future enhancements and clarifications are sure to follow as subsequent local laws.

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Like restaurant grades, new energy ratings to be prominently displayed

By Felix Feliz, PE, CEM, Collado Engineering
Real Estate Weekly, May 16, 2018

What’s all this noise about Hearing Loops?

As you may have heard, New York City has recently signed into law a requirement for Hearing Loops to be installed in building projects of a certain size, that are funded by the NYC Treasury Department.  Hearing loops are a clever technology that harness the power of electromagnetic waves to directly transmit sound to compatible hearing aids; they assist in amplifying desired sounds and reducing background noise, inconspicuously and inexpensively, in all kinds of situations from large assembly halls to ticket counters.  The technology has been employed in Europe for some time and is starting to gain some traction within the United States. Continue on for more information on the NYC local law and the technology…

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Arriving home after a long day of work, you might turn on the lights, put some dinner in the microwave, and put on the TV to watch that episode of your favorite show to help you unwind – pretty typical. Many people never come to the realization that all of these scenarios involve electricity. In fact, almost everything we do and take for granted requires electricity to function (even your car requires a battery). For many people, the mention of this word, or the words “voltage” and “current” are enough to send the brain into a state of either panic or indifference.

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