The old man in the basement was a problem for Nelson for a long time. He wasn't efficient. He was not pleasant to be around. He took a lot of her money.
That was Ms. Nelson's nickname for the ancient oil-fed burner that provided heat and hot water for her 8-unit apartment building.
Tenants complained of cold showers. Her heating oil bill went up in the winter. There was a smell and soot in her basement.
It's time to say no more. She replaced the old machinery with heat pumps. She brought her century-old property in New York City along with an increasingly urgent global transformation.
Billions of dollars in tax refunds are being given by the Biden administration to make buildings more energy efficient in the US. The global energy crisis has made that shift possible. According to research published in Nature, sales of heat pumps grew in the United States and other markets.
Emissions from buildings account for more than 25% of the nation's emissions. Most large buildings in New York City have to cut their numbers in half by the year 2024 under a city law. They will be fined if they exceed their emission limits.
There is a new businessopportunity.
Ms. Nelson was able to convert her building with the help of Donnel Baird, an entrepreneur who grew up nearby. He had his contractors install the equipment. It is rented by Ms. Nelson on a long-term basis.
The apartments have been cooled by the heat pumps, since they work as air-conditioning and heating devices. She won't have the smelly oil burners in the basement this winter. She wants her bills to go down as well.
Mr. Baird hopes that other landlords will do the same.
He said that the city has a tough law but it's not easy to carry it out. New York City is the most aggressive city in the country when it comes to green buildings. Mr. Baird spoke. We are lagging behind and we are not doing well.
It is a challenge in New York. The buildings are old. Cooperative can not afford to go all-electric. There aren't enough workers trained to retrofit
There isn't enough space to accommodate all the equipment in old buildings. In the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, an array of heat pumps will be housed in a glass dome above the old Domino sugar-refinery building.
Some cities, such as Ithaca, N.Y., and Berkeley, Calif., have passed laws requiring all buildings to get rid of oil and gas in the future. New gas hookups are not allowed in dozens of cities across the United States. Gas companies and local utilities have funded a counteroffensive to prevent local laws from banning gas.
The auto industry is large. There was a limit on the number of cars that could be eligible for tax credits for buying an electric vehicle. The tax credit will be extended until 2032, and used cars will be able to get a credit of up to $4,000.
The energy industry is important to us. Billions of dollars will be given to Americans who purchase energy efficient and electric appliances. Tax credits will be given to companies that build new sources of emissions-free electricity. $60 billion is set aside to encourage clean energy manufacturing and penalties for methane emissions that exceed federal limits.
It's health care. Medicare will be able to negotiate with drugmakers on the price of some prescription drugs. The law extends the subsidies that are available under theAffordable Care Act for three more years.
There is a tax code Companies that report more than $1 billion in annual income can use credits, deductions and other tax treatments to lower their tax rates under the new law. An investment of about 80 billion will be made by the legislation.
Communities with low incomes. The package supports low-income communities and communities of color that are disproportionately affected by climate change. Grants for zero-emissions technology and money to mitigate the negative effects of highways are included.
The industry is made of fossil fuels. The legislation requires the federal government to expand tax credits for coal and gas-burning plants that use carbon capture technology. These provisions were added in order to get the support of Senator Joe Manchin III.
West Virginia is located in the United States. The law is expected to benefit Mr. Manchin's state, which is the nation's second largest producer of coal, making permanent a federal trust fund to support miners with black lung disease and offering new incentives to build wind and solar farms in areas where coal mines or coal are located
Property owners can get tax refunds of up to $8,000 if they purchase electric heat pumps or make energy efficiency improvements, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. Electric panels in many buildings need to be upgraded. There are incentives for that as well. $200 million is allocated to train workers who can install new electric appliances.
Sign up for the Climate Forward newsletter Your must-read guide to the climate crisis.Other challenges loom as buildings and carselectrify. The electrical grid needs to be cleaned so that it doesn't burn fossil fuels. As demand increases, utilities will need to produce more power.
New York City has 24 power plants that run mostly on methane gas and fuel oil that emit greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. New York City aspires to have an electricity grid that is clean and free of fossil fuels.
New York is the best place to do it. It has the money and the political will to act quickly. He said that New York is a test case of whether or not a municipal mandate can be used to turn buildings into electric vehicles. Two real strategic questions are being asked.
The strategic calculations for electric buildings have been changed by the invasion ofUkraine.
Much of the gas used to heat homes in the EU comes from Russia. In order to wean itself off gas, the European Commission is doubling the installation of electric heat pumps.
One sixth of the gas that the European Union imports from the Kremlin can be slashed with the help of an analysis done by four nonprofits.
Individual countries are making their own decisions. Germany and the Netherlands will require heat pumps by the year 2036. New gas boilers were not sold in Austria this year. Leonore Gewessler, its climate minister, said in June that it was a step out of its dependence on Russian gas by getting rid of gas heating equipment.
When it is warm outside, heat pumps work to pull warm air into buildings when it is cold outside. Older people weren't great at heating homes in cold weather. The technology has improved according to their proponents. The evidence shows that is also true. The highest penetration of electric heat pumps can be found in some of the most frigid parts of the world.
ConsiderSweden. Fossil fuels make up less than 5% of home heating in winter. That shift took a long time.
Sweden used to use oil to heat its buildings. The first tipping point was the oil crisis of the 70's. The carbon tax of 1991 made heating oil more expensive by taxing carbon dioxide emissions.
District heating in Sweden uses pipes to carry heat into apartments. Garbage is the main source of heat, it has environmental problems. The majority of single- family homes use heat pumps.
Sweden is facing a new challenge As the country expands recycling and becomes more energy efficient, there could be less garbage to burn.
After college, Mr. Baird came back to Brooklyn, where he worked with Ms. Nelson. He used to make money by hooking up homes that used heating oil to the gas grid. It's less harmful to the environment to use gas instead of heating oil.
He realized after the birth of his first child that he didn't know anything. He realized that hooking up those buildings to gas prolonged the city's dependence on fossil fuels. He said that when he paid for the gas line, he was like, "Oh, when my kid's 35, and he's my age, this gas line is still going to be there."
He was told to consider abandoning gas by two of his most prominent investors.
Business sense was made by it. He was able to help the city leapfrog from dirty heating oil and go electric by helping tens of thousands of other buildings switch to electric heat pumps.
He moved the core business of the company. Most of the time it focuses on electrification in churches, fancy condos and apartment buildings across the country. Workers from low income neighborhoods are being trained by the power company.
The switch to electric hasn't been easy for Ms. Nelson. She was hoping that the city would issue permits quickly. Plumbing lines and wires haven't been removed despite the equipment being installed. Two machines are in the yard. She was going to build a terrace there.
She said that everyone was learning. We didn't know a lot.
Space is a big challenge. A lot of high-rise buildings don't have enough room to hold equipment. If a building's developers want to go all-electric, they need to set aside a lot of real estate. Finding ways to cut down on energy use will be a challenge for architects. Hale Everets, who manages new construction for Two Trees, said that it puts pressure on the design team to be efficient.
The Dorie Miller Cooperatives, one of the first where Black New Yorkers could buy their own homes, is vexed by Mr. Similar to Ms. Nelson, this building has been struggling with inefficient boilers that use heating oil.
If the cooperative replaces the old oil boilers with new oil boilers, it could be fined. Maintenance fees go through the roof if it is leased a new electric kit.
Michael De Valera was concerned about space. He wondered if the city had transmission lines in place.
The plan is to switch out the old oil boilers for gas ones, which will prolong the building's reliance on fossil fuels for another 40 years or so. He said there was less work, less cost, and less education for shareholders. The transition is going to be a little slower for us.
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