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Community Environmental Center Receives $3 Million DOE Grant for Innovative Weatherization Project
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Jay Ackley of CEC: A Minnesotan in Gotham
Monday, August 30th, 2010

Lack of Will on Cap & Trade Undermines Recovery and Hurts Climate, But Is There a Future for HomeStar?
Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Donna Parris: Woman of Many Lives
Monday, July 26th, 2010

Community Environmental Center and other agencies receive $12.9 million from DHCR for affordable housing weatherization
Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Community Environmental Center leads a state-of-the-art solar thermal project for the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council
Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Community Environmental Center is installing solar thermal systems in New York City
Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Community Environmental Center Welcomes JetBlue Airways to the Cool Roofs Movement
Monday, June 21st, 2010

21-year-old Spring Creek Towers resident is learning to weatherize homes
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Spring Creek Towers: A City Within The City
Monday, June 7th, 2010

CEC Pioneers Multifamily Renewable Tech in NYC

         
Monday, May 4th, 2009


As part of our ongoing efforts to encourage sustainability in New York, Community Environmental Center recently completed the installation of a pilot solar thermal installation on two 6-unit buildings in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, managed by the Cypress Hills Community Development Corporation.

panelscrewSolar thermal systems use heat from the sun to augment electricity and gas consumption that is currently used to heat water in our apartments. Although this technology has been widely pursued in Europe, currently the US is way behind in multifamily renewables.

CEC installed systems that pass glycol through flat plate solar collector panels to cope with New York’s winter freezes. The glycol then is pumped through the building into the boiler room and passes through a newly installed heat exchanger.  In the heat exchanger the glycol heats water that is circulated into the solar storage tank. The solar storage tank then provides pre-heated water for the existing hot water tank. The preexisting hot water tank will need to consume less energy in providing hot water for residents. Each installation took 3 days to complete.

boilercrewRon Kamen of EarthKind Energy provided valuable training and oversight for the CEC crew. The panels were installed by CEC. 

Cost of materials was $9,453 for 4 panel system with heat exchanger and solar water storage tank.

For 2829 Fulton Street, energy usage for hot water heating was estimated at 1600 therms.  The installation of 4 solar panels was estimated to reduce energy used to heat domestic hot water by 727 therms annually at a cost of $1.8 per therms for the 20 year life of the system.  The total savings over the life of the system would be $26,000.

779 Liberty Street had a lower overall energy usage.  Domestic Hot water was estimated to use 1,066 therms.  The similar installation was estimated to reduce energy usage 389 therms.   389 therms at $1.8 for the 20 year life of the system will save $13,000.

[Please note that the camera used for the above pictures inserted a time-stamp that is inaccurate by three years. We are currently investigating the time-space continuum for an explanation of this error]