Bronx Fire Highlights How Energy-Efficiency Push Could Save Lives Beyond Climate Change (New York: section 8)

[Aeran]

Very interesting read. I can relate to things being unbearable warm house sitting at my mom's place.

https://www.thecity.nyc/housing/2022...ium=newsletter

For Tawanna Davis, winter means hauling out an electric space heater to keep warm when her Bronx building’s heat is insufficient.

Davis, 51, has for two decades been a resident of Twin Parks Tower North West in Fordham Heights, the site of a deadly fire earlier this month that officials have said was sparked by a malfunctioning space heater.

“You get the ice on the inside [of the window] and everything,” Davis told THE CITY. “It be really, really cold in your apartment.”

While some tenants said they’d be shivering without space heaters, others said they had to open their windows in the winter when their units became unbearably warm.

That hot-and-cold situation, which many New York apartment dwellers know all too well, highlights the importance of improving energy efficiency in residential buildings.

And this can be especially true for subsidized, income-restricted complexes — aka “affordable housing” — where improved comfort and safety are immediate benefits beyond slashed greenhouse gas emissions.

But upgrading affordable housing stock at the necessary pace presents logistical and financial challenges, which the Adams and Hochul administrations need to solve regardless in order to achieve their climate goals.

The Twin Park Towers, built in 1972, are part of the state’s Mitchell-Lama housing program and receive some funding through the federal Section 8 program, which helps subsidize rents for low-income tenants.

“The fact that a relatively new building by New York standards has people living in situations requiring space heaters in order to reach a level of comfort suggests the complexity of this issue,” said Jonathan Meyers, a partner at HR&A Advisors, a firm that consults on real estate strategy and policy in New York and around the country.

“It’s a very stark reminder that there’s a fine line between inefficiency, which most of us can tolerate on a day-to-day basis, and tragedy, which is intolerable,” he added.

[Adhom]

It just seems like Americans never figured out how to weatherproof for cold climates. I lived in Germany and Sweden and the weatherproofing in their windows puts ours to shame.

[nightcrawler]

it also depends on where the sun is shining.

apartments facing the sun will always be warmer where apartments facing the shade will be colder, thus the LL raising the heat for the shady ones to be warm, then the sunny ones are unbeareable, but i'd rather have more heat and open a window.