exactly what the Longmont Housing Authority (LHA), Longmont, Colo., focused on when retrofit- ting the Village Place Apartments five years ago. Originally constructed in the 1990s, the LHA
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purchased the 47,000-square-foot building in 2005 with the intention to upgrade major sys- tems and transform it into affordable living for low-income seniors. The authority pays the utility costs—the residents just pay the rent—making it advantageous to upgrade to efficient systems that would save money in the long run.
Energy Upgrades Marv Counts, project manager with LHA, oversaw the entire retrofit, which was completed while all 72 units were occupied. Various upgrades includ- ed replacing the old boilers with newer 87 per- cent efficient models to reduce gas consumption and heat the building and water more efficiently. “We even reduced the number of boilers,” he re- calls. “Originally we had five boilers and utilizing more efficient models allowed us to reduce the number to three. We also insulated all the ex- posed pipes we could in the mechanical room
nnovative building products, sustainable practices and attention to detail generally aren’t the first thoughts that come to mind when one thinks of housing authority- maintained resident complexes, but that’s
and down the first-floor corridors to keep in as much heat as possible.” New solar panels, installed when the roof was
replaced, pre-heat water from 50 F to about 100 F. Water temperatures need to be at about 180 F for the boiler, so LHA needs to use gas resources to heat the water only 80 degrees, rather than the 130 degrees it would have had to without the solar panels. Because of the flat roof and the way the building façade is designed, very little of the solar panels jut up from the roof from street view. Rooftop heating and cooling units also were replaced and additional return and supply air ducts installed. The new boilers and solar panels saved approximately 30 percent on gas usage, ac- cording to Counts. LHA opted to replace the appliances in all 72
units with ENERGY STAR-rated appliances and also installed through-wall air-conditioning units. Appliances were replaced on an ongoing basis for eight months. “We also tried to reduce the water usage by changing out all the shower- heads and toilets throughout the building to low-flow units,” Counts says. Village Place Apartments also experienced a
lighting upgrade. “We went from predominately incandescent bulbs to, at the time of the retro- fit, CFLs, and most recently we changed a lot of those to LEDs and hope to see some savings
My property managers informed me utility costs recently went up and, with the use of the LEDs, our monthly costs have remained fairly stagnant. It’s definitely worth the investment.