AGENCY TESTIMONY
NYCHA's preventative maintenance and preparation for winter challenges
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ยท
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NYCHA emphasizes the importance of preventative maintenance in ensuring consistent heat for residents, given the aging infrastructure of their buildings and heating systems. The agency outlines various measures taken to prepare for the winter season.
- Annual preventative maintenance performed on nearly 5,000 pieces of heating equipment
- $43 million invested in heating infrastructure upgrades at 2 developments since last winter
- Additional $24 million investment at 8 developments to be completed by end of heating season
- Deployment of mobile boilers and increased after-hours staffing for emergency response
Keith Grossman
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Focusing on preparing for the winter season.
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Our buildings and infrastructure are aging.
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The majority of our buildings are more than half a century old, and our boilers are 27 years old on average, past the 20 to 25 year expected life span for a boiler.
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For this reason, preventative maintenance is a vital part of our work to ensure consistent heat for residents for residents.
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Every year, our heating management services department, HMSD, performs preventative maintenance and inspections to preserve and restore the reliability of nearly 5,000 pieces of heating equipment, including 897 boilers, 1,733 hot water systems, and 1,619 heat distribution systems.
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This involves inspecting, cleaning, lubricating, adjusting, repairing, and replacing worn components, and ensuring that equipment and mechanical areas are in a satisfactory operating condition.
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Before this year's heating season began, HMSD and our vendors performed preventative maintenance and made repairs when necessary on 100% of our heating equipment.
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Due to the large number of assets, Nitro procured a vendor to to conduct preventative maintenance on some of our boilers, allowing NYCHA staff to focus on the hot water and heat distribution systems, which includes circulating pumps, vacuum tanks and pipes that deliver heat to residents' homes.
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Every year, we develop and maintain a list of critical heat and hot water equipment and systems that need replacement or extensive repairs.
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And we procure extra parts, so we are prepared when key items fail.
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NYCHA invested over 43,000,000 in heating infrastructure upgrades at 2 developments since last winter and an additional 204, 24,000,000 of investment at 8 developments will be completed by the end of the heating season.
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We also maintain a reserve of staged and non staged boilers that can be activated in the event of a large scale heating service disruption.
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Thirteen mobile boilers are currently connected to developments and 8 more can be deployed if needed.
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And we increased after hours, and we increase after hours staffing coverage ahead of the heating season, adding evening plumbing and electrical teams that can be deployed in response to outages.
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And additionally, an overnight midnight to 8 plumbing team is added when temperatures drop below freezing.