MEP Systems

Deep energy retrofits are critical to achieving climate goals while preserving affordable housing. This session examines the transformation of Whitney Young Manor, a 195-unit multifamily development in Yonkers, NY, as a replicable model for high-performance renovation. The project combines comprehensive envelope improvements with innovative mechanical systems, including a central heat pump plant with hydronic distribution, energy recovery ventilators (ERVs), and wastewater heat recovery.

This session presents lessons learned and actionable recommendations for designers, operators, and owners of central heat pump water heater systems (CHPWHs) from on-going research of early adopters. A NYSERDA study monitors hundreds of data points per minute to track performance, demand, and faults in five CHPWHs. With the addition of operations staff feedback, failure causes and efficiency-drivers are determined and low-cost improvements implemented. Presenters will discuss design vs.

In many affordable housing preservation projects, seemingly good electrification projects are deemed infeasible. We present real NYC projects where the decision was made not to electrify, and how the decisions were made. Then we turn to the audience: using your own assumptions and experience, convince us otherwise. Through live discussion, we explore why teams reach different conclusions and what it will take to move the right projects forward.

As AI reshapes, well, everything, practitioners are asking: How can I use AI to expand my impact without compromising my values or professional judgment? This session presents complementary perspectives on AI adoption. Elizabeth Kelly shares how she transformed her decarbonization expertise into an AI-enabled workflow, to help a small consulting practice rapidly identify investment-ready retrofit opportunities while keeping human expertise and accountability centered.

Can the fight against climate change also create a more resilient and emergency-ready campus? Stony Brook University’s decarbonization efforts prioritize resilience and engagement of a cross-functional team of campus stakeholders representing facilities, workforce development, capital projects, communications, and community relations. The new infrastructure will include a fuel cell microgrid integrated with networked geothermal, that can provide clean, reliable energy so that the university and its hospital have consistent delivery of heating, cooling, and electricity during an emergency.

By sharing measured results from multifamily housing ventilation system retrofits across organizations, this group of industry leaders comes together to accelerate learning and raise the bar for retrofit performance. Focused on central ventilation systems, presenters share case studies with pre- and post-retrofit data, examining gaps between modeled and measured outcomes, commissioning lessons, and operational challenges to help scale successful approaches sector-wide.

How do high performance building practitioners persuade clients to pursue deep reductions in operational and embodied carbon? Industry experts from architecture, energy consulting, and development share lessons on owner decision making, cost, risk, and defining an acceptable outcome for new construction and rehab projects. The discussion offers honest reflection on what persuasion methods succeed, when results are limited, and how some strategies fail. Presenters will also share lessons learned, and perspectives on what strategies work best with various stakeholders.

Embodied carbon assessments have traditionally excluded MEP systems, but recent analyses show MEP systems contribute more embodied carbon than structures and enclosures for certain building types. This session will bring together experts from different sectors to emphasize the importance of considering the embodied carbon of MEP systems alongside operational carbon. Speakers will share the current challenges in this field and provide a roadmap for quantifying, and ultimately reducing, MEP embodied carbon.