Carousel Park Apartments
• High-efficiency
natural
gas-fired
room heaters
• Increased
comfort;
reduced
heating costs
• North
Tonawanda,
New York
High-Efficiency Natural Gas-Fired Room Heaters Save
Dollars, Increase Comfort in High-Rise Apartments
“This is a much more
efficient way of
heating the units,” says
Mark Eyrick, Vice-President
of Property Management for
M.J. Peterson Corporation,
which manages the
apartment building.
“We’ve gotten some
very positive reviews
from the residents
themselves in terms
of comfort.”
R
esidents in a 162-unit apartment building near Buffalo, New York are enjoying more
comfortable winter heating than ever before.
In 2005, M.J. Peterson Corporation of Amherst, New York, managing agent of the Carousel
Park Apartments in North Tonawanda, replaced expensive-to-operate electric room heaters in
the ten-story building with highly-efficient Rinnai wall furnaces that run on natural gas. The
realty management firm based its decision on the success of a similar conversion project a
year earlier at another of its properties, Elmwood Square Apartments in Buffalo.
“This is a much more efficient way of heating the units,” says Mark Eyrick, Vice-President
of Property Management for M.J. Peterson Corporation, which manages approximately
3,500 residential rental units in Western New York. “We’ve gotten some very positive reviews
from the residents themselves in terms of comfort.” He says the decision to replace electric
heat with natural gas-fired heaters was based on their energy efficiency and money-saving
potential.
Old Electric Heaters Gather Dust, Remain Unused
In the one-bedroom apartments at Carousel Park, the management company left electric
heaters in the bedrooms as an option for tenants, in case the bedrooms weren’t kept warm
enough by the natural gas heaters in the living rooms, according to Eyrick. The old electric
units are more expensive to operate.
“I have not heard that the tenants are using them,” he says. “I’ve heard the new ones are
adequately heating the entire units.”
Carousel Park pays for the natural gas; apartment residents receive a utility allowance toward
electricity through their federal Section 8 housing subsidies, according to Eyrick.
Compact Rinnai natural gas
room heaters like this one supply
quiet, energy-efficient comfort for
Carousel Park residents.
The 11,000-Btu Rinnai Model RHFE-263FA heater units are mounted to exterior walls using
through-the-wall vent kits. Designed to heat small areas such as the one-bedroom and efficiency
units at Carousel Park Apartments, they are cool to touch and feature LED temperature displays,
electronic ignition, child-safety locks. and built-in humidifiers. Because there is no ductwork,
there is no heat loss from leaks. A short, through-the-wall concentric pipe draws outside air in for
combustion, while exhausting flue gases to the outside. By using outside air for combustion, the
apartment units are not subject to negative pressure effects, which can cause increased leakage of
cold, outside air into the heated space. The heaters, which are the size of two-drawer file cabinets,
are plugged into regular household outlets for the small amounts of electricity needed to operate
the controls.
Sensitive Controls
A seven-stage gas valve allows the heater to throttle up or down according to demand. The heater’s
built-in Thermister® sensor can discern temperature changes as small as a tenth of a degree,
according to Dan Bonk, Territory Manager for Bryant Northeast, the Rinnai distributor that
supplied the units for the Carousel Park and Elmwood Square apartments.
“When it senses a change of three-tenths of a degree, it adjusts the gas valve up or down to
compensate,” Bonk says. “It’s a very sensitive control. A small unit can heat a very significant
area” of up to 550 square feet.
The heaters are easy to operate and extremely quiet when operating. They have a sealed
combustion system and are vented to the outside from behind the appliance.
“They are virtually indestructible and almost never break,” Bonk adds.
National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation
6363 Main Street
Williamsville, NY 14221-5887
State University of New York at Buffalo
• High-efficiency
natural gas
equipment
• Lower overall
campus utility
bills
• Amherst,
New York
University Scores Savings with Switch to Natural Gas
Equipment for Heating, Water Heating, Cooking,
Power Generation, and Vehicles
From the time it
began converting
to high-efficiency
natural gas equipment
in 1990 to 2004,
the university saved
nearly $4.8 million
on utility bills.
L
ong considered a leader among colleges and universities in energy conservation, the State
University of New York at Buffalo is saving millions of dollars by switching from expensive
electric equipment to natural gas on its North campus.
From the time it began converting to high-efficiency natural gas equipment in 1990 to 2004, the
university saved nearly $4.8 million on utility bills. During that time, its natural gas usage increased
from 4,186 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) to 231,710 Mcf.
“We’ve had wonderful benefits,” says Fredric J. Smeader, P.E., Manager of Engineering Support
Services in the University at Buffalo’s Facilities Planning and Design Division. “We have moved
from about 5 million to 6.7 million square feet of space on the North Campus, but only experienced
a nominal cost increase (in utility costs).”
The university’s North Campus was designed in the 1960s with all-electric heating and hot water.
This was during a time when the designers anticipated an endless supply of cheap electricity
from nuclear power. However, nuclear energy fell into disfavor and electricity prices soared, so
the school’s administration began searching for a more economical approach to heating buildings
during the winter.
Around this time, federal restrictions on the use of natural gas were relaxed, making it an attractive
alternative.
Energy Audit Recommends Natural Gas
A comprehensive energy audit conducted by the university in 1995 recommended that all new
buildings on its campuses be heated with natural gas. The audit also recommended that the
University at Buffalo continue converting North Campus heating systems to natural gas to replace
expensive electric heating.
The reason natural gas saves money, according to Smeader, is that the “approximate cost of
Thermal energy from natural
gas-fired Capstone microturbines
heats the Olympic-sized swimming
pool at the university’s Alumni
Arena.
electricity relative to thermal value, compared to natural gas, is about three to one.”
One of the earliest natural gas projects at the North Campus was the Natural Sciences Complex, built
in 1993. The complex includes instructional and research labs and five lecture halls. Its 180,000 square
feet of space are heated by three Cleaver-Brooks natural gas-fired boilers. Natural gas also heats the
four-story Mathematics Building, built in 2000.
Conversion to natural gas domestic hot water heaters has saved $700,000 a year since 1997 for the
3,300-student residential Ellicott Complex. The hot water for each of its six buildings, formerly allelectric, is now produced by three 1 million BTUH Aerco high-efficiency hot water heaters.
Newly built gas-heated residence facilities include Hadley Village (1998), a dormitory condominium
complex housing 620 students; South Lake Village (2000), with housing for another 552; Flint Village
(2001) with 536 students; and Creekside Village (2002), housing 228 students.
Other Conversion Projects
In 2002, the university installed two 60 kW grid-parallel Capstone natural gas-fired microturbines at
Alumni Arena that generate some electric power for the facility. Thermal energy recovered from the
microturbines is used to heat an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
A major utility conversion project involved the MacKay Heating Plant, which supplies heat for
the 3 million-square-foot South Campus. For many years, it used coal to run four boilers that
supplied 150,000 pounds of high-pressure steam per hour. Renovated in 2004, it now houses
a trio of high-pressure natural gas-fired boilers. National Fuel provided logistics and planning
for installation of 1.5 miles of pipeline to serve the plant.
South Campus houses the University’s Health Sciences, including the Schools of Medicine,
Dentistry, Nursing, Public Health and Health Professions, and the School of Architecture.
Two 60 kW grid-parallel Capstone
microturbines use natural gas to
generate electric power for the
Alumni Arena swimming pool
water pumps.
Between 1998 and 2000, the university also converted all-electric dining hall kitchens in the
Ellicott and Governors residence halls to natural gas, which is preferred by the cooking staff.
Electric air-handling units in many buildings have also been replaced by natural gas equipment.
The University at Buffalo has gone even further in its utilization of natural gas by purchasing 50 natural
gas vehicles for its 400-vehicle fleet and setting up a natural gas fueling station for them. These vehicles
include buses, pickup trucks, sedans, and combination vehicles. This conversion from diesel to natural
gas engines removed the problem of exhaust fumes from the university’s older diesel buses, according
to Smeader.
National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation
6363 Main Street
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Williamsville, NY 14221-5887