Q&A
Council Member Banks questions NYCHA officials on boiler replacements and heating improvements
0:31:57
·
3 min
Council Member Chris Banks questions NYCHA officials about progress on boiler replacements and heating improvements across NYCHA developments. NYCHA representatives provide updates on the number of boilers replaced and planned replacements through 2026, as well as explaining the variability in boiler systems across different developments.
- NYCHA has completed 134 boiler replacements, on track to exceed their goal of 133 for the year
- Officials explain that the number of boilers per development varies, with an average of 3-4 boilers
- Two approaches to boiler replacement are discussed: wholesale replacement and decoupling of heating and hot water systems
Chris Banks
0:31:57
Thank you for your statement.
0:31:59
I guess we'll just dive right in.
0:32:01
You know, boiler repairs and replacement of at the NYCHA developments, obviously, is a hot topic.
0:32:08
And, obviously, with the, with the temperatures, dropping over the last couple of weeks, we know that, the last 2 years, we obviously haven't had traditional winter cycles, and we know now that the systems are being tested.
0:32:27
As we are now in this heating system, I would like to start with, some of the updates on the heating improvements that have been made across NYCHA, and, can you tell me, what what what progress has been made, when it comes to boiler replacements, as of today?
Dylan Baker-Rice
0:32:49
I'll start.
0:32:50
Thank you, Chair.
0:32:53
To date, we have completed a 134 boilers through, our capital construction cycle, which is on track to exceed our goal for this year of 133.
0:33:07
There's another 3 that we're working on to finish out where the construction has been completed and we're testing.
0:33:14
We project that we'll complete another 103 by the end of 'twenty five and another 60 by the end of 'twenty 6 so that we hit our target of 297 boilers, by the end of 'twenty 6, which is the overall HUD target.
Chris Banks
0:33:29
Traditionally, how many boilers are at a particular development?
0:33:34
Like, say, for instance, the pink houses.
0:33:36
How many boilers, operates to provide heat to the residents?
Keith Grossman
0:33:43
What?
0:33:43
You said pink?
Chris Banks
0:33:44
Pink.
0:33:44
Like pink houses.
0:33:45
I know that they're going
Keith Grossman
0:33:46
So it varies, right, at every development.
0:33:49
I'll get back to you on the exact number of boilers at pink.
0:33:52
But it varies development by development.
0:33:54
Right?
0:33:54
There's a formula that we use when we're designing and installing the boilers that says, you know, we're going to we need, this many boilers to provide this amount of steam pressure to this many apartments, and it's geographically diverse and based.
0:34:08
So we may have a development that has 6.
0:34:11
We may have one that has only requires 2, to provide heat.
0:34:15
Additionally, you know, we'll have decoupled hot water resources.
0:34:19
So, maybe each building has its own hot water supply or a separate boiler that does hot water for the property.
0:34:25
So, it really does vary.
0:34:26
But it's, you know, 3 to 4 is probably a reasonable number to see as an average.
0:34:30
There are some with 8.
0:34:32
There are some with 1.
Chris Banks
0:34:35
Well, when the replacements are taking place, are they just removing, all of the old boilers, or are they piecemealing it?
Dylan Baker-Rice
0:34:44
So as my colleague Keith said, there there's sort of 2 approaches.
0:34:49
1 is where we wholesale replace the boiler.
Chris Banks
0:34:52
Okay.
Dylan Baker-Rice
0:34:53
And that's if we're keeping most, if we're keeping the steam system in place.
0:34:56
Right.
0:34:56
Another avenue
UNKNOWN
0:34:56
is that we decouple,
Christopher Leon Johnson
0:34:57
which means that we
UNKNOWN
0:34:57
remove the capacity of the domestic
Chris Banks
0:34:57
system.
0:34:57
Right.
Dylan Baker-Rice
0:34:58
And boiler is not providing space heating and domestic hot water.
0:35:08
In that case, we can reduce the size of the boiler and, deploy domestic hot water solutions, at different buildings.
0:35:17
And so that'll allow us, redundancy between the two systems and less strain on the overall boiler.
Chris Banks
0:35:24
Alright.
