Operations and Maintenance

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.

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.

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.