Betances V – Passive House for Supportive Senior Housing
Project Background
Breaking Ground is New York’s largest provider of street outreach and supportive housing. Betances will be its first Passive House residence, which will house and support homeless and low income seniors.
The 152-unit residence will dedicate 25% of units to New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) seniors, 45 units to homeless seniors, and remaining units to seniors with incomes of less than 50% of the area median income. The project includes active design principles, outdoor garden spaces, accessible accommodations, and a community facility, as well as social services support to refer tenants to medical care.
Project Services
Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA) worked with the project team from early design to ensure it would be built to Passive House and Enterprise Green Communities standards. SWA also provided incentive programs support, awarding it funding from NYSERDA’s New Construction Program.
SWA is providing energy code commissioning services for the HVAC, domestic hot water, and lighting control systems. Through design reviews and functional testing, SWA is verifying that energy-related systems perform efficiently, reliably, and maintain occupant comfort. To further ensure that the owner is receiving the high performance building they defined in the design phase, SWA will be conducting a system overview training for building staff and will be completing a post occupancy walkthrough.
Primary Energy Conservation Features
• Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heating and cooling system
• Highly efficient, centralized energy recovery ventilation system
• Domestic hot water box re-circulation design
• High efficacy LED fixtures and lighting controls