A $63m push to retrofit housing
BHA project will make units energy efficient
Mayor Thomas M. Menino will announce today what is being billed as the largest energy efficiency overhaul in public housing in the nation’s history, a sweeping initiative designed to save electricity, countless gallons of water, and millions of dollars.
The $63 million renovation will target 4,300 apartments in 13 Boston Housing Authority developments stretching from Brighton to Charlestown. Thousands of leaky toilets will be traded for low-flow models. Power-sucking lights will give way to hyperefficient LEDs and compact fluorescents. And cantankerous, big-as-a-house, oil-guzzling boilers will be upgraded to cleaner natural gas varieties that will allow residents to control their heat.
“When I was growing up, the way you used to cool the place down in the winter was opening the window,’’ said Bill McGonagle, a BHA administrator who lived in a crowded apartment in the Mary Ellen McCormack housing development in South Boston.
The project promises to do more than eliminate the one-temperature-fits-all heating systems that have forced residents to rely on alfresco thermostats. At the Lenox Street development in the South End, a dozen failing tar roofs that absorb heat like a sponge will make way for white surfaces that reflect warmth and for solar panels. On West Dedham Street at the Torre Unidad development, a newfangled cogenerator will use natural gas to heat hot water and produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of roughly 33 single-family homes.
“It’s the nation’s largest public housing energy performance contract, right here in Boston,’’ said Menino, who will announce the project at the Bromley-Heath development in Jamaica Plain, which will benefit from $11.5 million in improvements that will include new bathroom fixtures, revamped heaters, and thermostats. “I think it’s a win-win for everyone in the fact that it is energy efficient and there is no cost to taxpayers because it is paid for with savings generated by improvements.’’
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development, which covers utility costs for Boston public housing units, has agreed to continue paying the same amount for the next 20 years. The Boston Housing Authority will borrow $63 million against those future payments and use the money to pay Framingham-based energy firm Ameresco to complete the three-year project.
After the BHA repays the loan and interest over the next 20 years, taxpayers would save an estimated $7 million annually in utility costs for public housing, said David J. Anderson, an executive vice president at Ameresco.