Boston Housing Authority: St. Botolph Apartments

Background

Built in 1972, St. Botolph offers 132 efficiency and 1-bedroom apartments for low- and moderate-income elderly and disabled persons. The 8-story building is located in the heart of Boston’s historic Back Bay neighborhood. Components of the building units have extended themselves beyond their projected life span and exacerbating conditions have led to increasing operational costs, especially related to energy.

To meet growing energy retrofit demands and other capital improvement needs, Boston Housing Authority (BHA) has undertaken a Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) conversion. RAD is a HUD program that allows public housing authorities to leverage private capital to finance upgrades to housing stock.

Solutions

BHA is working to ensure that through this RAD conversion, St. Botolph continues to remain a sustainable and healthy living environment for residents. Through the installation of energy-efficient technology and smart engineering, the RAD conversion is expected to lead to decreased energy use, water use, and carbon emissions. One of the technologies in the project’s scope that will help achieve these goals are the variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat pumps that will replace the existing electric baseboard heat.

The following measures are projected to reduce source energy use by 30 percent:

Solar Thermal Domestic Hot Water
Variable Refrigerant Flow Air Source Heat Pumps
Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) to serve all common areas.
Boiler Plant Upgrade - Condensing mode boilers at 98% Thermal Efficiency
LED lighting for all apartments
Mix of LED upgrades, new lamps, and occupancy sensors for hallway and common areas
Air Sealing & Insulation
Low Flow Toilets -- EPA WaterSense compliant
Aerators and Faucets -- EPA WaterSense compliant

ANNUAL ENERGY USE

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ANNUAL ENERGY COST

ANNUAL WATER USE

ANNUAL WATER COST

ANNUAL PLANT ELECTRICITY USE

ANNUAL PLANT ELECTRICITY COST

IN BUILDING ENERGY USE

IN BUILDING ENERGY COST

ACROSS NETWORK USE

ACROSS NETWORK COST

ANNUAL EMISSIONS

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COST

St. Botolph Apartments

Boston Housing Authority: St. Botolph Apartments

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St. Botolph Apartments