NYC Medical College

AT A GLANCE

RESULTS

GOALS

1,262,000 reduction in kWh

Lower energy use in labs and vivaria

53,000 reduction in Therms

Avoid carbon penalties

752 MTCO2E carbon reduction

$ 201,000 in LL97 tax savings

Access utility rebates

NYC Medical College Research Building

Thrive Buildings partnered with a medical college in New York City to build on the success of their installation of Aircuity’s demand control ventilation (DCV) platform and expand the system beyond the 8th floor throughout the research building's remaining labs and vivarium spaces. The goal was to further reduce the building’s carbon footprint and ensure compliance with New York City’s Local Law 97 (LL97) thereby avoiding significant fines.

FDNY Compliance Pathway

The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) enforces the NYC mechanical code as it relates to lab air change rates to safely manage the explosive and flammable risks associated with lab chemicals. The combination of a detailed chemical analysis and the Aircuity DCV system allowed the affected spaces to receive an FDNY exception to the code. For the first time in NYC history, this enabled the safe lowering of the minimum airflow required in these spaces, as long as they are constantly monitored by Aircuity. Working with FDNY during the prior 8th floor fitout paved the way for reduced airflows in this project and created a new performance pathway to allow for lower lab ACH in all NYC lab and research spaces. This new pathway will be utilized across the campus as a key lever to decarbonize lab and research spaces and become LL97 compliant.

Additonal Airflow Adjustment

During the balancing efforts, it was noted that some variable air volume (VAV) units struggled to maintain lower airflows. To address this, Thrive retrofitted transducers with a lower pressure range, ensuring accurate control to lower setpoints and optimizing the performance of the Aircuity DCV systems.

Installation and Impact

The implementation of this second-phase airflow optimization program with Aircuity across the building’s labs and vivaria resulted in energy savings of $272,068 annually and a 752 MTCO2E carbon reduction. Thrive also worked with the local utility to secure a rebate of over $800,000 and avoided over $201,000 in carbon penalties.

Conclusion

Thrive’s turnkey installation of Aircuity DCV systems in both lab and vivarium spaces not only set new standards for energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction but also paved a pathway for other New York City lab owners to install Aircuity for energy savings while complying with FDNY regulations.