Apr 22, 2022   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Bright Power Leads Passive House and Enterprise Green Communities Certifications for Latest Phipps Houses and Acacia Network Development

Bright Power, Inc. today announced they have secured PHIUS+ 2015 Passive House and Enterprise Green Communities (ECG) certifications for Santaella Gardens, an affordable housing property in The Bronx, developed by Phipps Houses and Acacia Network. Many Bright Power team members were involved in the successful completion of the project, with Carmel Pratt, Vice President, New York, as the Lead Passive House Certified Consultant and Avery Gray, Technical Lead, High Performance Building Team, as the PHIUS certified verifier.

Construction for this newly developed project was completed in 2021 and certification was achieved on March 25, 2022.

Santaella Gardens, located at 1230 Metcalf Avenue in the Soundview section of The Bronx, is a 249 unit building that meets Passive House sustainability standards. It is projected to have a site energy use intensity EUI of 20.4 kBTU/sqft/Yr, which is 75% lower than a typical NYC apartment building*. Bright Power worked with Dattner Architects on the sustainability of the design, providing valuable insights into what is Dattner’s first completed passive house project.

Services that Bright Power provided for the property include:

  • Passive House design consulting, energy modeling and certification
  • Design and installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic panels, totaling 162.7 kW of onsite renewable energy
  • Commissioning; including code compliance commissioning, functional performance testing of all building MEP systems, performance testing including whole-building air tightness and compartmentalization verification, and visual verification of all building components throughout construction
  • On-site building operator’s training focused on high-performance equipment and sustainable maintenance measures to ensure all operations are properly run
  • Ongoing utility monitoring with EnergyScoreCards

“We are pleased to achieve Passive House certification for Santaella Gardens. In addition to providing much needed affordable housing to Bronx residents and supportive services for 25 formerly homeless New Yorkers, this project reduces greenhouse gas emissions and provides a framework showing that environmentally sustainable affordable housing is possible, and beautiful, with the right partners,” said Carmel Pratt.

This property is also equipped with EnergyScoreCards to monitor the building's energy and water usage. A core service provided by Bright Power, this solution continuously analyzes utility data at Santaella Gardens and provides an overview of energy and water usage, spend, and performance. This is critical for not only understanding energy consumption but also the corresponding carbon emissions of the property and comparing actual usage data to predicted modeled data.

To demonstrate the power of EnergyScoreCards, Bright Power recently finished analyzing all its EnergyScoreCard properties from 2021 to determine total carbon emissions saved. Bright Power eliminated 236.2 million pounds of carbon emissions through all of its service lines, including energy efficiency installations, on-site generation, benchmarking, and more.

This is equivalent to the annual emissions of 7,800 Americans, a 30MW gas plant running non-stop for a year or taking 26,000 cars off the road. This data was determined by analyzing 2,288 properties in 2021 and subtracting their 2021 emissions from their 2020 emissions.

Bright Power -- the premier provider of energy and water management services and trusted advisor for real estate owners, investors, and operators -- brings seventeen years of experience in renewable energy, energy efficiency, project management, and energy analysis to the industry.

*The average EUI for a NYC apartment building is 87.66 kBTU/sqft/Yr.

About Bright Power

Bright Power provides strategic energy and water solutions to building owners and operators across the nation. Specializing in multifamily apartment buildings, Bright Power has worked with almost 2 million units that cover over 2 billion square feet. Bright Power’s energy management solutions include EnergyScoreCards benchmarking software, energy audits, energy procurement, on-site generation, green building design services, turnkey installation of energy improvements and ongoing energy management. For more information, please visit www.brightpower.com.