What is NYC Local Law 97, and How do I Comply?

In the face of a worldwide push to keep increases in global temperatures below 2C, NYC is doing its part through the passage of Local Law 97. The purpose of LL97 is to reduce NYC’s carbon emissions in its largest buildings by 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.

The new law directly affects owners of both commercial and residential buildings over 25000 sq ft. in size including rent controlled buildings with less than 35% rent regulated units. Comprehensive information on LL97 can be found at the New York State website. It is the responsibility of every building owner or manager for directly understanding whether their buildings are affected and if so, ensuring they comply.

What do you need to do?

If you have determined that your building is affected by Local Law 97 you will have to file an annual Greenhouse gas emissions report. This report will explain the building status with respect to LL97 and if your building exceeds the maximum allowable greenhouse gas emission level, you will be subject to an annual penalty. This penalty will be based on a direct calculation of the difference between allowed carbon emissions and actual carbon emissions. For large building owners, these fines can easily be thousands of dollars or even tens of thousands of dollars if non-compliance is significant.

A property manager can find out if their building complies with the upcoming 2024-2029 emissions caps, or the much tougher 2030-2034 caps, today. For the most part the buildings covered by this new law have already been subject to New York benchmarking laws LL84, and LL133, so property managers have been required to calculate and report energy and water usage to the city for several years now. With the data collected from the benchmarking surveys the property manager can use an online Carbon Emissions Calculator to determine if they comply.

How Heat-Timer® Helps NYC Building Owners Comply.

To put it simply: reducing greenhouse gasses means reducing energy usage, period. If you can reduce your heating energy usage by ½ or more you will have gone a long way toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and complying with Local Law 97. Heat-Timer® products help with this in two primary ways:

Reduction of Heating costs – For large apartment or office buildings, the installation of an internet enabled Heat-Timer® Platinum control has been shown to reduce energy consumption by anywhere from 25% to 50%.  Even apartments with older Platinum controls can upgrade them to internet based wireless controls without having to purchase a new control. With the addition of just these capabilities and the use of our wireless space sensors, similar reductions in energy consumption are possible. The best part is that rebate programs offered by NY Utility companies will often pay for part or most of your equipment and installation costs. 

Compliance With The New Minimum Apartment Temperature Requirements – The following notice is posted on the NYC website at the start of every heating season:

“The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) today announces the beginning of New York City’s eight-month-long “heat season,” during which all residential building owners are required to maintain indoor temperatures at 68 degrees when outdoor temperatures fall below 55 degrees during the day. Indoor temperatures must also be a minimum of 62 degrees overnight, regardless of outdoor temperatures.”

This can be a very difficult area to stay in compliance with because building owners to not have ready access to temperature readings to head off complaints.  Many times they will need staff to enter apartments for temperature testing with a thermal gun, but many times the call to 311 has already been made.  This challenge can be made much easier with the addition of wireless apartment sensors communicating to your remote operable Heat-Timer®.  Not only will the sensors provide the feedback you need to validate or invalidate a heating complaint in real time, but they will also allow you to go back as far as (13) months into the past to chart and track the temperature of any temperature sensor.  In practical terms, the wireless sensors will also allow the end user to set a smart ambient average command for both daytime and nighttime that the Heat-Timer® will maintain, allowing building owners to satisfy heating needs of cooler apartments, while overheating others as little as possible.  In doing so, the Heat-Timer® also reduces boiler run times, and overall heating expenditures.  

More efficient Domestic Hot Water Delivery – Heat-Timer® Products help building owners provide the most energy efficient operational compliance with NYC law possible. Products like our Electronic Tempering valve or our pre-plumbed Electronic tempering station make a lot of sense even without the added motivation of LL97 driven energy savings. This is because landlords in NYC are subject to heating and hotwater rules established by the city housing department, which direct allowable temperatures of water delivery during heating season.  From the actual spec we have the following:

“Building owners are legally required to provide hot water at 120 degrees year-round. The Heat-Timer ETV Platinum Plus can also be upgraded for remote access for real time temperature readings and real time alarming if the DHW temps fall out of compliance, both high or low.”

Let’s face it: building managers hate to get on the city’s radar and those 311 calls have ruined many an owner’s weekend. With Heat-Timer’s domestic hot water controls and remote boiler controls minding the store, most of these issues can be prevented and resident comfort can be maintained.

For more information on how you can obtain rebates that offset the cost of Heat-Timer® equipment and installation, please call our team today.

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