Tips from Tom Sahagian

Throughout his 40-year career in energy effi­ciency, Tom Sahagian has gotten up close and personal with boilers plenty of times. ​“I never met a boiler room that I didn’t like — even the really gross ones,” he said. 

Despite attempting to retire almost 10 years ago, Sahagian still finds himself in the thick of all things energy as a part-time advisor for NYCHA and adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. Yet these days, he finds himself taking on more elec­tri­fi­ca­tion projects than boiler work. 

He devel­oped the idea for a pilot project for heat pumps in multi­family build­ings, which brought him to the doorstep of a five-story HDFC co-op in Manhattan. Here, he teamed up with resi­dent Lisa Harrison, as well as compa­nies Taitem Engineering and Daikin. The pilot was a lesson in executing what Tom believes will be the future for many of New York’s build­ings in coming years — making the switch from fossil fuels to elec­tric solu­tions with good energy-effi­ciency prac­tices, such as installing heat pumps and air sealing. 

Here are a few lessons learned from the project, as told by Sahagian.

1. Expect some glitches

When it comes to heat pump instal­la­tion, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. As Sahagian expe­ri­enced during the co-op’s project, customized, DIY-type solu­tions also require some trial and error. Running into issues is to be expected — and this project was no exception. 

Materials arrived late due to COVID supply chain issues, and various hiccups arose during the instal­la­tion process: Contractors didn’t prop­erly seal the conden­sate lines on the side of the building at first, causing water to leak into some apart­ments during a big rain storm.

“People need to know that these things can happen so they can guard against them if they decide to go this route,” Sahagian said. 

Then there were the smaller, aesthetic issues. Some of the elec­trical and refrig­erant lines were too far out of reach to be concealed by line-hide, a protec­tive plastic cover for wires, so they were left dangling off the side of the building. A smat­tering of conden­sate drain pipes can also still be seen poking out of the brick façade, albeit on a side of the building not visible from the street. These phys­ical blights, while minor, were an unplanned remnant of the instal­la­tion process. 

Most impor­tantly, however, nearly five years after the instal­la­tion, every­thing is oper­ating as it should be. ​“Overall, the units them­selves have worked really, really well,” Sahagian said of the Daikin heat pumps.

2. No need to nix every­thing all at once.  

Keeping an old oil-fired boiler may seem contrary to the goals of Local Law 97 (LL97). But not every­thing needs to go out the window all at once, espe­cially if it’s working the way it should. 

Some share­holders in the building advo­cated for the boiler to be replaced, fearing it was on the verge of collapse due to its age. But Sahagian says it’s not age that dictates whether a replace­ment is needed, but rather how much corro­sion the boiler has been forced to undergo. 

A more piece­meal approach to going green is often best, partic­u­larly if cost is a concern. That was the case for this building, which is still using the 40-year-old boiler in the base­ment to supply domestic hot water while share­holders build up reserves to invest in a hot water pump. In the mean­time, the new Daikin heat pumps provide heating and cooling, and the building has still lowered green­house gas (GHG) emis­sions asso­ci­ated with heat and hot water by nearly 60 percent — proof that build­ings can meld the old and the new while still lowering their carbon footprint.

“So, seeing as how Local Law 97 wants you to cut your green­house gasses [signif­i­cantly] by 2050, getting rid of 60-odd percent of what you used for heating is pretty huge,” said Sahagian.

3. Weigh which tech­nology is right for you — even if that means waiting.

As heat pump tech­nology evolves, Sahagian advises build­ings to weigh their options. Window heat pumps, which sit like a saddle over window frames, are less intru­sive, easier to install, and cheaper than other options because they don’t require trade labor to open up walls and run lines, Sahagian said. These units can be plugged into a regular wall outlet, and present a much lower risk of refrig­erant leaks. 

In fact, Sahagian said that his deci­sion to develop a model for a window heat pump is the ​“logical outcome” of his expe­ri­ence with the Taitem Engineering project, where the instal­la­tion was at times messy and noisy.

Now, as a part-time employee for NYCHA, Sahagian is testing the scal­a­bility of these window units with a pilot project in part­ner­ship with the housing authority. They’ve already installed 72 Midea and Gradient units at its Woodside devel­op­ment in Queens, and are gearing up to install 144 more Midea heat pumps in the Summer and Fall of 2025.

“We hope that buying a lot of these things will maybe induce other manu­fac­turers to come into the market,” he said.