6 Unit Garden Apartment

General Description

Three story garden apartments located in Syracuse, NY. This sample project is a 4300 square foot building containing 6 apartments. The building was constructed in 1965 and contains the original 250,000 btu/hour boiler, R11 insulation in walls, R19 in the attic, double pane windows, and an 80 gallon gas-fired hot water tank. A blower door was not a viable technique to measure infiltration, instead the ACH (air changes per hour) was estimated and adjusted to match billing. The landlord pays all gas bills for heat and hot water. Tenants pay all other electric costs. A utility bill analysis has been performed for both electric and natural gas.

The boiler and the hot water heater are located in the ground level mechanical room. The main living area of each apartment is cooled by a 12,000 btu/hour, through-wall unit. These AC units are original circa 1965. The walls AC units are estimated to have an aggregated output capacity of 72,000 btu/ hour.

The thermostat is set to 72F as the occupied heating temperature and not set back (since tenants do not pay for heat). The occupied cooling temperature is set to 75F with setbacks to 90F for 16 hours per day (tenants pay their own cooling costs). Temperature set points were adjusted as part of the comparison to a billing analysis.

Hot water is produced by a direct fired, natural gas, 80 gallon hot water heater. Shared appliances include a coin-op clothes washer with matching coin-op gas dryer. Each apartment has an electric oven and range, a refrigerator, and a dishwasher.

Improvements modeled include: a boiler replacement, an indirect domestic hot water tank zoned off the new boiler, new AC units, targeted air sealing, an additional 10" of cellulose over the existing 6" of fiberglass in attic, refrigerator replacement, low flow shower heads, and lighting improvements.

Packages Included:

"New Boiler with Indirect DHW tank, Insulation, Air Sealing"- 93% efficient boiler with outdoor reset control, 28 gallon hot water tank zoned off boiler, 10" of cellulose over existing fiberglass, and targeted air sealing in the attic.

"Electric Measures Only" – Includes measures which reduce electric consumption. This includes new refrigerators, lighting, and air conditioners.

"Boiler and DHW Only" – Includes 93% efficient boiler with outdoor reset control and a 28 gallon hot water tank zoned off the new boiler.

"Insulation & Air Sealing Only" – Increase attic insulation to R52, decrease uncontrolled ACH to .64 from .81.(estimated 20% reduction based upon visual inspection of large accessible air pathways in attic).

"All Measures" – contains all the Improvements including boiler, DHW tank, windows, AC units, insulation, air sealing, lighting, and refrigerators.