Condo and Co-op Maintenance in NYC

Get Healthy! NatMedTalk.com has the Answers for you!

2009-09-01T23:35:00.002-04:00

Stressed out home owners looking for answers to their questions about health issues are advised to read a new natural health forum.

The NatMedTalk.com natural health forum has discussion groups in more than a dozen categories such as cancer, women's health, nutrition and diabetes.

From there, hundreds of posted topics posted allow you to post your own questions and have them answered by professional health experts and every day people with personal experience in the topic.

The philosophy of the natural health forum is an emphasis on alternative medicine, preventative medicine, and the ability of our bodies to heal themselves.

The natural approach contrasts sharply with 21st century U.S. hospital-based medicine with its sole emphasis on pills, surgery, and excessive testing. Martin Bell excoriates the Cancer Industry, for example.

After having lost half of your rquity owning a house, all you have left is your health, homeowners!

Check out the the natural health forum NatMedTalk.com.

HealthyFellow.com is Your Path to Good Health

2009-07-03T12:40:00.004-04:00

Let's face it, homeowners: our 21st century health care system is based almost totally on the application of pharmaceuticals and surgery.

If you go to a hospital, the diagnosis will be to either take a pill or cut into your body with a knife as the way to heal your ailing body.

But, there is another approach: good health can be achieved naturally!

A new natural health blog can be your resource for the information you need to maintain good health naturally for yourself, your family, your friends, and even your neighbors in your condo or co-op building.

The natural health blog HealthyFellow.com has nearly 20 categories -- such as women's health, men's health, heart health, nutrition, and more. Each category features informative articles that show you how to apply natural health techniques in your daily lifestyle.

Co-op and condo owners are smart, well-read consumers and many of us are fortunate enough to have available to us the best doctors, surgeons, and hospitals in the world.

Nevertheless, despite these advantages, an increasing numbers of well-to-do homeowners are skipping the prescription drugs and surgery, and choosing natural health and using the body's naural healing ability.

After you have visited HealthyFellow.com, come back here and comment below on how useful you found this new natural health blog, and in what areas of health you were able to use its advice.

Homeowners, here's to your good health!

Energy Saving Tips from Lowe's

2009-03-29T23:10:00.001-04:00

Winter Energy Savings Tips

Summer Energy Savings Tips

More Housing Details Are Pending, but First Some Answers

2009-02-20T00:32:00.001-05:00

February 19, 2009
By T.S. Bernard

The Obama administration’s housing plan aims to help millions of homeowners who fall into two categories: either they have been struggling to pay their mortgages or they have been shut out of the refinancing market.

The initiative gives lenders incentives to modify the mortgages of the three million to four million homeowners on the brink of foreclosure or who cannot make their monthly payments. The goal is to reduce the payments to levels they can afford.

The plan also aims to help the four million to five million homeowners who have been unable to refinance their mortgages because their home values dropped, erasing much or all of their home equity. Some of them would have a fresh shot at refinancing.

While the administration offered some details about the programs, more information will be available on March 4, when the programs begin.

Below are answers to some of the questions that troubled borrowers may have.

REFINANCING

Q. Am I eligible?

A. Your loan must be owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, the government-controlled companies that together account for about half of the mortgage market. The problem is that many of the most problematic loans do not fall under the Fannie-Freddie umbrella. You can call your mortgage lender after March 4 to find out if your loan qualifies.

You will need to have “sufficient income to make the new payment and an acceptable mortgage payment history,” according to documents about the initiative. Precise details will be released next month.

In the meantime, you should get your financial house in order. That means collecting the paperwork you will need to refinance, including information detailing your gross monthly income; most recent income tax returns; information about any second mortgages; payments made on credit cards if you carry a balance; and payments on other loans, like auto or student loans.

Read the rest of the story here. . .

Bringing Wind Turbines to New York City Rooftops

2009-02-20T00:23:00.002-05:00

Rooftop Wind Turbines
The New York Times by Anne Eisenberg on February 15, 2009

WIND turbines typically spin from tall towers on hills and plains. But in these green times, some companies hope smaller turbines will soon rise above a more domestic spot: homes and garages.

The rooftop turbines send the electricity they generate straight on to the home’s circuit box. Then owners in a suitably wind-swept location can watch the needle on their electricity meter turn backward instead of forward, reducing their utility bills while using a renewable resource.

One new model, the Swift Wind Turbine, is designed to do its job quietly, said Dave Anderson, co-director of Renewable Devices in Edinburgh, which has partnered with Cascade Engineering in Grand Rapids, Mich., to offer the turbine in the United States.

“The noisiest it gets is 35 decibels,” roughly the sound of a quiet conversation, he said of the whir of the blades. The turbine, which looks like a large wagon wheel, has a ring around its blades designed to diffuse noise and limit vibration. “The air is steered toward the diffuser ring and dispersed, rather than leaving the blades with a ripping noise,” Dr. Anderson said.

The turbine costs $10,000 to $12,000 including installation, said Michael Ford, manager of the renewable energy business unit at Cascade Engineering. When the wind is blowing briskly at 30 miles an hour or more, it will generate 1.5 kilowatts of electrical power, he said. Enough, for instance, to run fifteen 100-watt light bulbs.

“You need a strong average wind speed,” he said, recommending that prospective customers make careful measurements before they buy. “Don’t trust your memories about the wind power around your house,” he said. “People always remember when it’s windy,” but forget about the lulls.

Residents may measure wind speed with an anemometer, often available for rent, as well as by entering their address at the Swift Web site, which has listings of average wind speeds for localities.

Read the rest of the story here:

Google PowerMeter Can Reduce Your Power Bill!

2009-02-10T14:23:00.002-05:00

Googling Your Home Electricity Usage
by Miguel Helft for the New York Times

If people knew how much electricity they are using every time they turn on the lights, fire up the oven or lower the thermostat on their air conditioner, they would make smarter decisions about their energy use, and presumably, conserve more.

That’s the idea behind a prototype service that Google unveiled on February 10, 2009 which New York Times reporters Matthew Wald and Miguel Helft wrote about in on February 10, 2009.

The service, which will be called Google PowerMeter, will allow users to measure their energy use in real time. It one of many new consumer products that would-be enabled by so-called “smart grid” technologies, and it is one of Google many new initiatives in the energy area.

Google is unveiling the prototype for PowerMeter well before it has a functioning product available as a way to attract partners to its endeavor. The company also hopes that the announcement will bolster its own advocacy efforts at the state and federal levels in support of policies and investments that would promote the development of a smart grid.

Read the whole story here:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/googling-your-home-electricity-usage/?hp

Tankless Water Heater Buying Guide

2009-01-29T12:40:00.004-05:00

Several plumbers I have talked to say do not get a tankless water heater because you will not get enough hot water when you need it and you will be very disastisified with its performance.

Nevertheless, here is a Tankless Water Heater Buying Guide

What is a Tankless Water Heater?
How do Tankless Water Heaters work?
Selecting a Tankless Water Heater
Tankless Water Heater Installation and Maintenance
Tankless Water Heater Manufacturers
Tankless Water Heater Buying Guide Video
________________________________________

What is a Tankless Water Heater?
Tankless Water Heaters, also called Instantaneous or Demand Water Heaters, provide hot water only as it is needed. Traditional storage water heaters produce standby energy losses that cost you money.

We do not leave our homes heated while vacationing. We only heat our homes when there is a demand for heat. In the same way, a Tankless Water Heater is used only when there is a demand for hot water.

How do Tankless Water Heaters work?
Tankless Water Heaters heat water directly without the use of a storage tank. Therefore, they avoid the standby heat losses associated with storage water heaters. When a hot water tap is turned on, cold water travels through a pipe into the unit. In an electric Tankless Water Heater an electric element heats the water. In a gas-fired Tankless Water Heater a gas burner heats the water. As a result, Tankless Water Heaters deliver a constant supply of hot water. You don't need to wait for a storage tank to fill up with enough hot water. Typically, Tankless Water Heaters provide hot water at a rate of 2 – 5 gallons (7.6 – 15.2 liters) per minute.

Typically, gas-fired Tankless Water Heaters will produce higher flow rates than electric Tankless Water Heaters. Some smaller Tankless Water Heaters, however, cannot supply enough hot water for simultaneous, multiple uses in large households. For example, taking a shower and running the dishwasher at the same time can stretch a Tankless Water Heater to its limit. To overcome this problem, you can install a “whole house” type Tankless Water Heater or install two or more Tankless Water Heaters, connected in parallel for simultaneous demands of hot water. You can also install separate Tankless Water Heaters for appliances—such as a clothes washer or dishwater—that use a lot of hot water in your home.

Other applications for Tankless Water Heaters include the following:
• Remote BBQ or outdoor sink
• Poolhouse or pool shower
• Remote bathrooms or hot tubs
• To serve as a booster, eliminating long pipe runs, for solar water heating systems, dishwashers and sanitation.

For homes that use 41 gallons or less of hot water daily, Tankless Water Heaters can be 24% – 34% more energy efficient than conventional storage tank water heaters. They can be 8% – 14% more energy efficient for homes that use a lot of hot water, around 86 gallons per day. You can achieve an even greater energy savings of 27% – 50% if you install a Tankless Water Heater at each hot water outlet.

Selecting a Tankless Water Heater
Before buying a Tankless Water Heater, consider the following:
1. Fuel Type
2. Location, Size and Demand
3. Application

1. Fuel Type
The first thing that you'll need to decide when selecting a Tankless Water Heater is the fuel type. You will need to select between an Electric Tankless Water Heater (like Eemax Tankless Water Heaters or Stiebel Eltron Tankless Water Heaters) or a Gas-Fired Tankless Water Heater (like Rheem Tankless Water Heaters).
• Requirements for Electric Tankless Water Heaters
• Requirements for Gas-Fired Tankless Water Heaters
________________________________________
If you plan to purchase an Electric Tankless Water Heater, consider the Electrical Requirements:
• Voltage
• Amperage
• Circuit Breaker

Voltage
Many retailers sell units that will accommodate 110V, 120V, 208V, 220V, 240V, and 277V.

Amperage
Different Electric Tankless Water Heaters will have various requirements in amp draw. You will want to ensure that you can support the electrical demands of your Electric Tankless Water Heater.

Circuit Breaker
You must ensure that you have a circuit or circuits that will support your Electric Tankless Water Heater. It may be necessary to put your Electric Tankless Water Heater on its own circuit or circuits.

You should consult with a qualified, licensed electrician for more information.
________________________________________

If you plan to purchase a Gas-Fired Tankless Water Heater, consider the Gas-Type and

Venting Requirements:
You will first need to identify whether your gas type is Natural Gas or Propane. It is imperitive that you examine your current gas line to ensure that it will meet the requirments of your new Gas-Fired Tankless Water Heater. The requirements of the Tankless Water Heater may exceed that of your existing tank-style water heater.
Next, you will need to consider venting requirements for your specific installation scenario. There are a few important things to keep in mind when purchasing the gas venting accessories for your Gas-Fired Tankless Water Heater.
Be sure that you purchase Category III stainless steel (UL1738 certified) venting for your Gas-Fired Tankless Water Heater. "Type B" venting accessories are not acceptable. Also, be sure to check local building code to ensure that your specific needs will be completely met.

Additionally, many Tankless Water Heater manufacturers offer gas venting "kits". It is recommended that customers evaluate the needs of their specific installation to ensure that they will be getting all of the necessary gas venting accessories. Depending on where you will be installing the Tankless Water Heater, a pre-made kit will probably not meet your needs. Ensure that you measure out the vent route and consider where the discharge will go through the wall or ceiling, consider the necessary clearances, and consider ample access to air for combustion, then buy the appropriate gas venting pieces. *Note: Gas-Fired Tankless Water Heaters may still require a minimal electrical connection. Be sure to review installation requirements for the units you are considering for purchase.

2. Location, Size, and Demand
When deciding which Tankless Water Heater to purchase, you will also need to consider where you will need hot water. Are you looking for a unit that will heat the water at one bathroom sink (single point application), an entire bathroom (multipoint application), or an entire house, apartment, or condo (whole house application)? It is important to recognize the number of fixtures that will require hot water. Each fixture will have its own demands. The chart below illustrates the typical flow rates (demand) for some standard fixtures:
Typical Flow Rates in Gallons per Minute (gpm)
Fixture Type Lavatory Bathtub Shower Kitchen Sink Pastry Sink Laundry Sink Dish-washer
Flow Rates 0.5 2.0 – 4.0 1.5 – 3.0 1.0 – 1.5 1.5 – 2.5 2.5 – 3.0 1.0 – 3.0

The flow rate is especially important, since Tankless Water Heaters will generate a temperature rise based on the flow rate demanded.

For example, a Stiebel Eltron Tempra 12, running on 240 Volt power, will raise the water temperature by 54°F at 1.5 gpm, 36°F at 2.25 gpm, and 27°F at 3.0 gpm, above the ambient incoming water temperature, up to 125°F.

A larger unit, like the Stiebel Eltron Tempra 36, running on 240 Volt power, will raise the water temperature by 92°F at 1.5 gpm, 92°F at 2.25 gpm, and 82°F at 3.0 gpm, above the ambient incoming water temperature, up to 125°F.
Temperature Rise Based on Flow Rate, Up to 125°F
Flow Rate 1.5 gpm 2.25 gpm 3.0 gpm
Tempra 12 54°F 36°F 27°F
Tempra 36 92°F 92°F 82°F

This means that if you are using a 1.5 gpm shower and a 1.5 gpm kitchen sink simultaneously, a total demand of 3.0 gpm, the Stiebel Eltron Tempra 12 will raise the temperature 27°F, whereas the Stiebel Eltron Tempra 36 will raise the temperature 82°F.

Next, you should look at your ambient incoming water temperature. If you live in a cold climate, like New York, your incoming water temperature will likely be much lower than if you live in a warm climate, like Florida. Your best bet is to find out how much temperature rise you will need in order for your hot water to reach the desired heat. If the ambient incoming water temperature for your shower is 65°F, you are using a 2.0 gpm shower, and you want to raise that temperature to 115°F, you will want to look for a Tankless Water Heater that will provide at least a 50°F temperature rise at 2.0 gpm (115°F - 65°F = 50°F). However, if you anticipate additional simultaneous demand, such as the hot water from a sink being used while someone is showering, you will need to add the sink's gpm to the shower's gpm in order to determine your overall gpm demand and then find the temperature rise necessary to meet your overall needs.

60° F
Incoming Water

2 gpm
Shower

110° F
Desired Output Water Temperature

You will need a Tankless Water Heater that produces a 50°F temperature rise at 2 gpm

3. Application
You may have a specific application in mind for your Tankless Water Heater. Here are a few examples of the different models and their functionality for a specific application:

Single Point Application
A single point application is one where only one fixture will require an Electric Tankless Water Heater. Here are some examples of Single Point Electric Tankless Water Heaters:

Eemax Single Point Electric Tankless Water Heaters
Stiebel Eltron Point of Use Electric Tankless Water Heaters
Chronomite Instant-Flow SR Electric Tankless Water Heaters

Eemax Flow Controlled
The "Flow Controlled" range of water heaters from Eemax are ideally suited to serve two points, like two sinks, in close proximity. Here is an example of Flow Controlled Electric Tankless Water Heaters:

Eemax Flow Controlled Electric Tankless Water Heaters

Thermostatic
The Thermostatic Tankless Water Heater serves as a booster for temperature loss from long pipe runs, dishwashers and sanitation. Thermostatic units are good for applications where precise temperature control is essential; such as schools, hospitals and laboratories. Here are some examples of Thermostatic Electric Tankless Water Heaters:

Eemax Thermostatic Electric Tankless Water Heaters
Stiebel Eltron DHC-E 8 Electric Tankless Water Heater
Stiebel Eltron DHC-E 10 Electric Tankless Water Heater

Eemax Series Two
Eemax Series Two units are ideally suited for residential showers, entire bathrooms, smaller houses, condos, summer cabins and apartments. They will also accommodate industrial boosters, higher flow rate applications such as wash down stations and higher flow rate accurate temperature control applications such as photo labs. Here is an example of Eemax Series Two Electric Tankless Water Heaters:

Eemax Series Two Electric Tankless Water Heaters

Whole House Indoor Use
Larger Whole House units are designed to serve an entire house, apartment, condo, or cabin, where multiple points of use will exist. Here are some examples of Whole House Electric Tankless Water Heaters for Indoor use:

Eemax EX280T2T Series Three Electric Tankless Water Heater
Stiebel Eltron Tempra Series Electric Tankless Water Heaters
Rheem Indoor Gas-Fired Tankless Water Heaters

Whole House Outdoor Use
Larger Whole House units are designed to serve an entire house, apartment, condo, or cabin, where multiple points of use will exist. Here are some examples of Whole House Electric Tankless Water Heaters for Outdoor use:

Rheem Outdoor Gas-Fired Tankless Water Heaters
Tankless Water Heater Installation and Maintenance
Proper installation and maintenance of your Tankless Water Heater can optimize its energy efficiency.

Proper installation depends on many factors. These factors include climate and local building code requirements. You should have a qualified, licensed plumbing and heating contractor install your Tankless Water Heater.

Do the following when selecting a contractor:
• Request cost estimates in writing
• Ask for references
• Check the company with your local Better Business Bureau
• Confirm the company will obtain a local permit, if necessary, and understands local building codes
Be sure you contractor first consults the manufacturer’s installation and instruction materials. Manufacturers usually provide the necessary installation and instruction manuals with the product. Your contractor should also contact your municipality for information about obtaining a permit, if necessary, and about local water heater installation codes.

Many Tankless Water Heaters have a life expectancy of more than 20 years. They also have easily replaceable parts that extend their life by many more years. In contrast, storage water heaters last 10 – 15 years.

You should consult the manufacturer's website or literature, such as the manual, for detailed warranty information.

Periodic water heater maintenance can significantly extend your water heater's life and minimize loss of efficiency. Read your owner's manual for specific maintenance recommendations.

Tankless Water Heater Manufacturers
There are many manufacturers of Tankless Water Heaters:

Eemax Tankless Water Heaters
Stiebel Eltron Tankless Water Heaters
Chronomite Tankless Water Heaters
Rheem Tankless Water Heaters
Bosch Tankless Water Heaters
Bradford White Electric Water Heaters

A Co-op Building's Mortgage

2009-01-24T12:51:00.002-05:00

Truly understanding the economics of how a co-op works is an enigma that even many decades long owners of co-op apartments fail to grasp.

The co-op corporation usually has a mortgage on the building for which each of the owners in the building essentially has a pro-rata interest.

Refinancing a co-op's underlying mortgage -- which is a commercial real estate mortgage -- is much more complex than getting a mortgage to buy an individual apartment unit -- which is a residential real estate mortgage.

This April 3, 1994 New York Times article explains some of the specifics:

A Co-op Building's Mortgage
WHEN the first wave of co-op conversions began in the New York area around 1979 it was believed to be foolhardy to pay off the underlying mortgage (or, in some cases, multiple mortgages) still attached to the building.

Shareholders benefited from the federal income tax deduction they received from their pro-rata share of the interest portion of the co-op buildings mortgage payments. Moreover, paying interest only on the outstanding principal balance rather than liquidating the debt through amortization helped lower monthly maintenance payments for shareholders.

By 1994, however, this view had been replaced by an approach that favors paying off the underlying debt, in some instances as fast as possible. To understand why requires a little history.

Mary Ann Rothman, executive director of the Council of New York Cooperatives (CNYC), recalled that throughout the 1980's co-ops gave scant thought to the underlying debt because it was easy to maintain. "Lenders even fought over the chance to refinance," she said. But after the savings-and-loan crisis, the drop in real estate values and the wave of sponsor defaults "lenders became more careful about where they placed their money," she said.

Many co-ops found they could no longer easily refinance those underlying mortgages -- some of which had to be renewed every 10 years. And buyers of individual units could not readily finance their own shares if any part of the current underlying commitment was about to expire.

Banks also began to consider more closely the pro rata share of the underlying debt that the buyer would be carrying. "And sometimes it was just too high," said Ms. Rothman.

Buyers began worrying more about future maintenance charges when shopping for an apartment, said Clark Halstead, managing partner with the Halstead Property Company, a major Manhattan brokerage.

Unless it was clear that a co-op could keep a lid on those charges over the long term it was at a disadvantage in an already shaky market. How much underlying debt a building was carrying became a key part of that equation.

Coincidentally, at the end of 1993, Freddie Mac along with some other lenders, reintroduced a 25-year fixed-rate, self-liquidating underlying mortgage.

Suddenly, said Katherine Lawton, former president of the 20-unit co-op at 30 West 74th Street, "this was one expense you could eliminate." Her board spent more than a year examining options, finally closing on a 20-year fixed-rate, self-liquidating $1 million loan in January 1994.

Still, it's not going to be the right solution for every building. Arthur Weinstein, a lawyer and VP of the CNYC, observed that paying off the underlying debt might indeed be a smart move for a small brownstone co-op likely to encounter difficulty each time it has to refinance, paying high processing fees relative to the size of the loan.

It may also be a smart move for shareholders with modest incomes, for whom loss of a tax deduction has a lesser impact, said Gregg Winter, president of Winter & Company, a mortgage service company in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn.

It's a good bet too, added Mr. Winter, for any building carrying a sizable number of sublet units on an ongoing basis -- something lenders dislike.

But common sense suggests that it's not going to be popular in a building with an affluent shareholder population seeking substantial deductions as taxes rise.

Nor will it be enthusiastically endorsed, say these experts, in a more transient building where maintenance costs are relatively high because they must cover the added cost of amortization for a long-term benefit the transients will never reap. That sort of a population is still more likely to rally behind a less costly 10-year, interest-only loan.

But co-ops that do resist the trend should be forewarned: Continuing to carry an endless mortgage could make them less attractive in the marketplace over the long haul because those interest charges will never go away, said Mr. Halstead. "And the effect on marketability is drastic once maintenance is perceived to be out of whack with comparable buildings," he said.

Despite the obvious advantages, any co-op eager to ride the self-liquidating bandwagon is being advised to pay close attention to emergency financing.

Patrick Niland, managing partner at First Funding Group of Rochester, a specialist in co-op underlying mortgages, said shorter-term mortgages customarily gave a co-op a chance to increase the loan amount each time it had to refinance -- say, to help pay for unexpected repairs or renovations.

This opportunity, he noted, disappears for a longer-term loan because initial fees are higher and heavy penalties for prepayment tend to last longer.

Thus, he said, co-ops going this route should make certain they have access to emergency funding. Otherwise they may be forced into refinancing before the loan term ends, a move that could be prohibitively expensive.

For example, said Mr. Niland, the co-op might seek in the loan documents assurances that it has the right to obtain a certain amount of secondary financing, if and when needed, without the prior consent of the primary lender.

Or the co-op could try to shorten the customary 10-year period during which the heaviest of the prepayment penalties remain in force, a concession he said he had on occasion won.

Another alternative, said Mr. Niland, is to set up an unsecured line of credit in advance, although the interest charges on such a credit line might not be tax deductible.

Co-ops fearing they may be ineligible to take advantage of the current availability of self-liquidating loans at today's low interest rates should still try to get out of their current commitment if they are unhappy, said Sheldon Gartenstein, a vice president at the National Cooperative Bank (NCB) in NYC.

He said he had recently gained concessions from the insurance company holding one particular co-op's current interest-only mortgage because the company, when approached, turned out to be eager to get out of co-op lending completely. Although some prepayment penalties still had to be paid, he said they were significantly lower than anticipated.

Ms. Lawton, the former co-op president, also found her building's lender eager to compromise on the remaining prepayment penalties as a way to keep the co-op from refinancing with another lender. "You can never be sure if you never ask," she said.

Ms. Lawton's co-op was so eager to begin paying off its mortgage while its interest-only loan was still in place that it created a "paydown" fund several years ago. It added a surcharge averaging $140 a month to each unit's maintenance charges, which it set aside as a lump-sum paydown when the current commitment expired. It was thus able to shave $100,000 off the new loan amount.

Using Solar Power to Save Money and Save the Planet

2009-01-07T01:18:00.003-05:00

Using a combination of solar photovoltics (PV) and solar hot water can substantially cut your energy bills.

PVs are meant to have new federal and state tax incentives in place soon, which will make their installation more economically appealing.

For one Harlem homeowners story of how they used solar power in their restored home, check here:
http://greeninharlem.com/2008/04/solar-hot-water-and-radiant-heating.html

www.greeninharlem.com

Favorite Vendors for Lighting

2009-01-07T01:12:00.003-05:00

I have found a good source for quality compact flourescent (CFL) and light emitting diode (LED) lights.

I buy all of mine from them now:
Energy Federation. I wrote a review on them here:

http://greeninharlem.com/2008/04/where-to-find-quality-led-and-cfl-bulbs.html

www.greeninharlem.com

New York Neighbors Recommend their Favorite Vendors

2008-12-26T23:10:00.007-05:00

Changing a Certificate of Occupancy:
"I used ASA Construction & Development. They do it all: architectureal plans, permits, construction and inspections. It was a good experience and the price was very reasonable. Kenny 917 559 2606"

Firewood:
"I use Joe at Palisades Tree Service at 201 568 6398.
Tell him Bill from 118th street recommended him."

Locksmiths:
"I have had a wonderful experience, ongoingly, with AWARD Locksmith. 212 860 2400.
Daytime, you talk to Sol, who will send you excellent workers.
Nighttime (when tenants locked themselves out), you get the service, who send you someone connected to AWARD, and you are billed and invoiced by AWARD"
They changed locks, made keys, opened doors, all in a manner that worked long term.
Mention my name Dinnah Pladott if you want."

"Webster Lock on Webster Ave in the Bronx"

Accountant:
"Koreen Jarvis, 212 677 1132"

Iron Works:
Italian Iron Works in Brooklyn

PropertyShark Founder Matthew Haines Recalls the Origins of PropertyShark

2008-12-26T22:50:00.003-05:00

By Matthew Haines
December 12, 2008

"I am happy to be back as a member of the Harlem Home Yahoo Group. I sold my brownstone on West 123rd Street in 2007, but I still have my co-op apartment unit on 131st, where I live when I'm in New York.

Currently I spend about 45% of my time in Romania, where I run PropertyShark. We do programming, system administration, cartography, marketing analytics, and customer service from Romania, where we have 35 employees. I'm headed back to New York and Harlem on Sunday to work on the year end issue of the Corcoran Report.

PropertyShark got its start in Harlem. In the late 1990s and up to 2001, most of the brownstones on my block of West 123rd (between 7th and 8th) were vacant, abandoned, lived in by squatters, empty lots, or some combination thereof. I had done pretty well buying and renovating my own brownstone and was looking to buy another.

It was hard work. Brokers would send you a description (a "setup") for a 20"x50" brownstone with a 3 family C-of-O, and with a little digging you'd find out it was an 18x45 SRO and that the "caretaker" on the parlor floor was actually a resident they hadn't been able to get rid of.

Then you would find out that the conversion to SRO had not been done with permits, and that the HPD was issuing violations left and right that would probably prevent you from ever getting the Certificate of No Harrassment.

So in December 2002 I wrote a little computer program to aggregate data from a variety of New York City agencies. I had always wanted to learn a little about programming the web, so I wrote it as a web site instead of creating a Windows-based user interface.

I let a few friend use it, and they let other friends use it, and pretty soon I was spending all of my time adding features, fixing bugs, and trying to keep the site from crashing. At that point the site was running on a $9.95/month shared hosting account at Aplus.net (a company that stopped charging my credit card only after the repeated intervention of American Express).

It was probably only in March or April 2003 that I added the ability to create an account on PropertyShark.

In order, the first six members were:
1) Charlie Marcus (who still lists his profession as "slumlord to the stars")
2) Michael Fordham
3) Matthew Haines (me!!!)
4) Mike Vinocur
5) Tony Oakley
6) Vladimir Akilov

Charlie Marcus had the idea to add foreclosures to the site, and we did that together until around July 2003, when I bought him out. Michael Fordham became immortal when his building, 104 West 113th Street, became the example property underneath the address lookup boxes."

Matthew Haines
Founder of PropertyShark
www.propertyshark.com

Repairing a Leaky Roof on your Condo or Co-op

2008-12-25T00:30:00.003-05:00

By Jay Romano
The New York Times
September 28, 2003

REPAIRING a leaky roof is a challenge under the best of circumstances. Just pinpointing the leak’s location often takes persistence, detective work and a fair amount of luck.

When the leaky roof is also an apartment building’s “backyard,” as in the case of a rooftop terrace, repairs can be expensive and vexing for a building’s owner.

“The tricky part is avoiding doing more work than is necessary,” said Stephen Varone, director of operations of Rand Engineering in Manhattan.

In New York, he explained, most roof decks, or terrace floors, consist of layers of different materials. For example, he said, it is not uncommon for a roof deck in a high-rise residential building to be made of a substructure of steel topped by a concrete deck, which is topped by a waterproof membrane. This membrane is itself topped by wood decking or, more commonly, with a layer of sand or mortar, which is then topped with paving bricks or quarry tile.

“Leaks often aren’t easy to find,” Mr. Varone said. While water will sometimes leak from a hole or crack in the surface of a roof deck directly into the ceiling or wall of the apartment below, it more often moves around a bit before making its way out.

“A leak will take the path of least resistance,” he said. “It might be coming right down through the concrete or it might be running along the supporting steel under the roof deck and then coming down somewhere else.”

Regardless of where the water comes out, preventing it from entering in the first place will solve the problem. Just where the water is getting in, however, usually isn’t easy to figure out.

“Normally, the first thing we do is a controlled flood test,” Mr. Varone said. “We’ll plug up any drains in the roof and use a hose to flood the area. Sometimes we’ll put a colored dye in the water. Then we go downstairs and try to determine where the water is coming from.”

While locating the entry point of a leak from its exit point is not always possible, the problem is magnified, Mr. Varone said, when the roof also serves as a terrace and is covered with tile or brick.
“The most difficult scenario is when you have old quarry tile set in mortar,” Mr. Varone said. “It is often necessary to rip up the quarry tile to locate where the water is getting in.”

Michael Ahearn, the owner of Seaboard Weatherproofing in Port Chester, N.Y., said another way to locate a leak was to use an infrared detector.

“The detector is used to find heat in the deck,” Mr. Ahearn said. “Since water is liquid, its temperature changes more rapidly than the substrate it’s worming its way through.” The infrared detector would then detect a difference in temperature, which would translate to moisture.

In most cases, he said, the roof (or terrace) surface is divided into a grid with readings taken at every grid point.

Once the source of the leak is found, Mr. Ahearn said, the decision must be made to either repair the leak or replace the entire roof membrane.

“If you have a leak in a specific spot, we’ll go to that spot first and pull up whatever topping is over the membrane,” he said. “But if you don’t see a hole or some sort of deterioration at that spot, it’s kind of a crapshoot from there.”

In fact, Mr. Ahearn said, in many cases it is necessary to remove all of the topping material—whether bricks, pavers, tile or even wood—to get down to the roof membrane.

“In most cases, if you’re going to the trouble of tearing up the topping, you might as well replace the membrane,” he said.

Roof membrane—that is, the waterproof covering typically applied on top of the concrete decking—can be either hot or cold liquid, which is basically squeegeed onto the surface, or “sheet goods” that are rolled out and stuck to the decking. (In some cases, the roof membrane is just laid on the concrete surface and held in place by the weight of whatever topping material is used.)

“The most common hot membranes are coal-tar-based materials, asphalt-based materials and rubberized asphalt,” he said, explaining that in most cases, a layer of tar paper is sandwiched between two layers of hot liquid topping.

An alternative to hot liquid membranes is a relatively new liquid material that can be applied cold.

Steven Tingir, chief specification writer for Rand Engineering, said that one advantage of any liquid membrane material is that it can generally be applied in one continuous coating and, as a result, leaves no seams.

An added advantage of cold liquid roofing membranes, he said, is that the material can be used on almost any roof.

“If you have a wood roof, the Fire Department won’t let you bring a kettle up to the roof,” he said, referring to the machine used to melt hot-applied asphalt materials. “You have to put the kettle on the street and them pump the hot asphalt to the roof.”

With a cold liquid, however, it is not necessary to use a kettle.

“Basically, you apply the membrane by pouring it on and spreading it out with a squeegee,” Mr. Tingir said. “And once you distribute it, you unroll reinforcing fleece over it and then go over the fleece with a roller to make sure it absorbs the liquid.” Once that is done, he said, another layer of liquid membrane is applied on top of the fleece material. It is also possible, Mr. Tingir said, to apply sheet membranes to the roof surface.

He said such materials, known as modified bitumen roofing membranes (basically asphalt treated with additives and reinforced with fiberglass or polyester), are rolled out and glued to the roof deck with material that acts as an adhesive. Particular attention must be paid to mixing the adhesive, Mr. Tingir said. “If the mixing is not done properly, problems may arise in adhering the membrane.”

Another relatively new product, he said, is a roof membrane that already has the adhesive applied to it. “It’s a peel-and-stick kind of thing,” he said. “You prime the surface and then directly adhere the roll to the deck and go over it with a 75-pound roller.”

Generally speaking, Mr. Tingir said, sheet roofing costs about $17 a square foot, including removal and disposal of the existing roofing material. Liquid roofing, on the other hand, costs about $20 a square foot.

To use a roof as a terrace, it is usually necessary to install yet another layer of material on top of the membrane.

Walter Sedovic, a preservation architect in Irvington, N.Y., said one option was to cover the membrane with “pavers.”

“They’re concrete, 2 feet by 2 feet, and they come in a variety of colors and styles,” he said. The pavers, he said, are mounted on adjustable plastic pedestals—one at each corner of the block—which permit water to flow beneath them and follow the natural pitch of the roof.

Another option, he said, is bricks or pavers set in a two-inch layer of sand.

This will not drain as quickly as the pavers, but the sand keeps the terrace permeable, he said, adding that screens are installed around the perimeter of the area to prevent the sand from washing down the drain pipes.

Yet another possibility, Mr. Sedovic said, is to install quarry tiles—6 inch by 9 inch clay-fired tiles—in a bed of mortar instead of sand. With such a roof, he said, the top level of the quarry tiles have to mimic the pitch of the roof so that the water drains properly off the surface. “It’s very important to build in an expansion joint every 15 to 20 feet,” he said, explaining that such a joint allows the surface to expand and contract without cracking.

The most ecologically friendly roof surface material, Mr. Sedovic, is not man-made.

“My favorite system is a grass-roof system,” he said. “Grass used to require about eight inches of dirt. But now there are systems that can be installed with as little as two inches of dirt.”

While dirt and grass may not seem the best materials to use on a roof—or a terrace—grass could possibly triple the life of a roof.

“Grass roofs are absolutely stunning,” Mr. Sedovic said. “ And they don’t need as much mowing as you might think.”

Reprinted from The New York Times, September 28, 2003, “Your Home” column, Real Estate section, page 5. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted with permission.

New York Organizations that will help you Run your Building

2008-12-25T00:24:00.002-05:00

Associated Builders and Owners of Greater New York (ABOGNY)
www.abogny.org
Works with federal, state, and local governments on issues affecting builders, owners, and managers of properties in New York City.

Building Owners' & Managers' Association
of Greater New York (BOMA/NY)
www.bomany.org
The New York chapter of a national organization for owners and facilities managers of commercial buildings.

The Cooperator
www.cooperator.com
A monthly publication covering the management of cooperative and condominium buildings.

Coordinating Council of Cooperatives of Greater New York (CCC)
www.cccofgny.coop
A clearinghouse for local cooperatives to exchange information on governance and operations.

Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums (CNYC)
www.cnyc.coop
Provides information on tax, legal, management, and maintenance issues affecting housing cooperatives and condominiums in the New York area.

Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives
www.fnyhc.org
Information for board members on operating and managing their cooperatives and condominiums.

Habitat Magazine
www.habitatmag.com
A monthly magazine for the cooperative and condominium community.

National Association of Housing Cooperatives (NAHC)
www.coophousing.org
Information on finding, buying, and living in cooperative housing.

The New York Association of Realty Managers (NYARM)
www.nyarm.org
An organization for managers of residential and commercial properties.

New York City Department of Buildings (DOB)
www.nyc.gov/html/dob
The DOB oversees construction, alteration, inspection, code enforcement, and permit approval for more than 800,000 buildings.

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC)
www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/lpc
Government agency that designates historic districts and properties and sets standards governing their repair and maintenance.

New York Cooperative
www.nycooperative.com
A source for New York area property managers with information on new laws and regulations, and lists of contractors, suppliers and service professionals.

New York Landmarks Conservancy
www.nylandmarks.org
Promotes preservation of architecturally distinct older buildings through grants, low-interest loans, consulting services, and public advocacy.

New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR)
www.dhcr.state.ny.us
Agency that oversees the supervision, maintenance, and development of low- and moderate-income housing in New York State.

nyproperty.com
www.nyproperty.com
A portal with information on brokers, buildings, financing sources, services, and local real estate news.

Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY)
www.rebny.com
Represents the real estate industry’s interests before city, state, and federal governments and the public at large.

Annual Co-op and Condo Expo: Tuesday, April 7, 2009

2008-12-25T00:16:00.002-05:00

The 22nd annual Co-op & Condo Expo will take place on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 from 9AM to 5PM at the Hilton New York at 1335 Avenue of the Americas (& 53rd Street)

The Co-op and Condo Expo is the premier real estate trade show in the New York area featuring over 270 exhibitors offering services in building management, maintenance, insurance, security, energy and many other services.

This link has a list of all 270 vendors which can be sorted by service offered (e.g., elevator, sprinkler, insurance, security, janitorial).

http://www.coopexpo.com/

NYT: "It Takes Money" June 3, 2007

2008-12-23T04:16:00.000-05:00

The owners who paid the most for their apartments are usually the first ones to argue for upgrades so their buildings do not lag behind newer condos, and so they can live in a style commensurate with a seven- or eight-figure purchase price.

But unless these buyers are very generous, they cannot simply repaint all the hallways, convert the basement into a gym or hire a new landscaper for the common garden. The costs have to be shared by all of the residents, and there’s the problem. Not every war chest can satisfy every dream. Many can’t even finance must-do budget-busters like replacing deceased boilers, dilapidated roofs and temperamental elevators.

Buildings that have failed to accumulate big nest eggs have to make some tough decisions. Their boards are often inclined to levy assessments on the individual shareholders, for one or two or six months in a row (or even years), rather than increase the maintenance (or in condominiums, common charges), an act that is often seen as a deterrent to sales.

But are boards that choose to assess instead of raising maintenance unwittingly jeopardizing the property values they seek to protect?

“There’s a balance here,” said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of Miller Samuel Inc., a Manhattan appraisal company. Driven by escalating costs of fuel, insurance and property taxes, maintenance fees have risen an average of 24.1 percent over the last five years, compared with 10.2 percent in the preceding five years, according to Miller Samuel.

These days, monthly maintenance fees of $1.30 to $1.60 a square foot are considered good, Mr. Miller said, and anything more than $2 a square foot is on the high side.

Nervous boards looking elsewhere for fund-raising may not fully appreciate that they are merely treading a different path to the same buyer-repelling door.

“If the maintenance levels are kept at too low a level, then you’re basically firefighting anytime something breaks,” Mr. Miller said. “It impacts the appeal of an apartment. So having very low maintenance charges is not always a good thing.”

(In appraising an apartment, his company checks two years of assessment history; a troubled scorecard can neutralize the boost that would otherwise be provided by low maintenance.)

“I don’t think there is the same sensitivity to the frequency and amount of special assessments and their impact on value as there is with maintenance,” Mr. Miller said. After the last increase in property taxes in New York City in 2003, he said he fielded questions from around two dozen co-op buildings about the competitive standing of their maintenance fees. “No one asked about assessments,” he said.

Property values aside, assessments are painful for apartment owners in the obvious way that parting with one’s money usually is. But they also tend to provoke a degree of hostility largely absent when, for example, a toilet — or entire bathroom — needs to be replaced.

“People have a renters’ mentality,” said Paul J. Herman, the executive vice president at Brown Harris Stevens Residential Management, which handles 150 co-ops and condos in Manhattan. “They forget they have to pay the piper to maintain it.”

For owners on the receiving end of an assessment, an ice age of deferred pleasures and hard feelings often ensues. When confronted with an assessment, “I clutch,” said Svetlana Choi, a senior sales associate at Bellmarc Realty and an Upper West Side co-op owner. “And when they finally break it down for you and explain what it’s for, then you kind of tighten your belt and deal with it. But everyone dreads it.”

Marc G. Windheuser, an associate broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman, agreed. His co-op in Bayside, Queens , recently assessed his two-bedroom apartment $2,000 to pay for repairs and upkeep on the three-building 300-unit complex. “I’m not happy about it, but I’m realistic,” he said. “What boggles my mind the most is that the people who scream and cry the most are also the ones who scream and cry about other things they want done.”

Especially galling for owners who do not sit on their buildings’ boards is the lack of control over how their money — and how much of it — is spent. Within their own apartments, owners can choose whether to install a $300 toilet or a $2,700 model, or simply to keep a plunger handy and hope for the best. But they have no standing to choose a $100,000 lobby renovation over one costing $500,000, or even whether to renovate at all.

In most cases, an owner’s only practical recourse is to catch the attention of a sympathetic board or to toss the board out on its ear in the next election, by which time it may be too late.

In the meantime, just as influenza disproportionately affects those with the weakest immune systems, assessments inflict more misery on people with fixed incomes and those just starting out. Among the latter group are the thinly stretched first-time buyers who failed to anticipate the possibility of being assessed.

“With a house I think I would have been a lot more thorough,” said Jason Rogers, 30, referring to his lack of attention to the condition of the condo building where he and his wife, Sarah, 27, bought three years ago. “But in an apartment building, if one person has a problem, you all have a problem, and I didn’t even think about it.”

To buy their $310,000 one-bedroom apartment in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn , the couple leveraged themselves as steeply as the pitched slate roofs of their neo-Gothic building, which once housed a Catholic prep school. Their no-holds financing included a three-year adjustable-rate mortgage and a home-equity line of credit to supplement their 10 percent down payment.

At a board meeting a month after closing, their homeowners’ honeymoon ended. They learned that the building was about to level a $600,000 assessment to repair the gorgeous but apparently dysfunctional roof.

“I was still trying to get used to the lingo,” Mr. Rogers said, “so initially I was confused as to what was actually happening.” But the cash-strapped couple soon understood they owed $12,000.

“That just completely knocked us out,” said Mr. Rogers, a freelance photographer. Ms. Rogers works as an administrative assistant at a project management consulting firm. Even under normal circumstances, he explained, the erratic nature of his income induces a semipermanent state of panic about finances. “We had already stretched ourselves pretty much to the max of what we could have done,” he said.

If their lawyer had unearthed this looming expense while they were negotiating, they might have been able to deduct it from the purchase price. Now they had no choice but to pay the assessment through a 10-year financing plan offered by their building. At $161 a month, the $12,000 tab will wind up costing them $19,358, about two-thirds the size of their down payment on the apartment. And that doesn’t include the additional $2,040 assessment imposed six months ago to cover budget overruns on the roof project.

As disagreeable as it is to pay for an assessment, selling an apartment to get away from the situation can be even more trying. Sellers often underestimate the destabilizing power of an assessment.

“In a well-run co-op or condo building, an assessment shouldn’t kill a deal if it’s not ridiculous,” said Wesley Stanton, a senior agent at Manhattan Apartments, “but there are certain buildings where you find out assessments are just a way of having a really flexible maintenance they increase and decrease as they want.” He was referring to the “everlasting assessment” phenomenon. “Sometimes you get into a situation where you have a mismanaged building with no reserve fund, like a condo with a ton of amenities, and they’re kind of living beyond their means.”

But even legitimate assessments for capital improvements can be a bit of an albatross when it comes to selling.

The problem for buyers, according to Michale Lembo, a sales agent at Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy, is that “by the time they get their arms around prices in Manhattan, they tend to be spending at the top end of their range to get the apartment they want.” He added, “Then they find out there is an additional assessment, so that can be a little tough for them to accept.”

Brokers recommend a variety of balms for queasy buyers.

“Market it honestly,” said Michael Goldenberg, an associate broker at Halstead Property. “You should be able to tell your buyer how much the assessment is, how long it’s been on and how long it will be on and what it’s being used for. If it’s being used positively, it’s a good thing, not a bad thing. If you don’t take care of the building, it’s going to deteriorate more greatly than necessary and so assessments are the way to keep your expenses down over a long period of time.”

It also doesn’t hurt to point out that assessments for capital improvements can be used to offset capital gains when it’s the buyer’s turn to sell.

Still, it’s harder to make lemonade out of a long history of assessments. Three assessments in five years, for example, is at least one too many, Mr. Lembo said.

His comment was echoed by Diane Ramirez, the president of Halstead. “A building that is known for assessments you’ve got to watch,” she said. “It means that maybe in the past they weren’t watching their capital improvements, and now they’re doing catch-up work. It’s all telling little bits of stories on the building, whether it’s less sound than what one would want to be involved in. And you always want to be in a building that is attractive to potential buyers.”

The shorter and smaller an assessment is, the less it may frighten a buyer. But the price of the apartment and the profile of the buyer also matter.

“If it’s listed at $1.5 million, an assessment is a factor for certain buyers,” said Ellen Devens, an associate broker at Brown Harris Stevens. “If you’re a first-time buyer and you’re coming from a rental and you know you have an additional $230 per month assessment, it may take you out of your comfort range. If the purchase price is higher than $1.5 million, then the extra money is, I think, inconsequential.”

Understandably, wealthy buyers are most likely to brush off an assessment, said Silvia Murphy, an associate broker at Halstead. She lost two buyers earlier this year on a $2 million two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath condo near Lincoln Center that was under a cloud of past and future assessments for capital improvements and an ongoing lawsuit.

“I told my sellers that this apartment would have to be sold to someone with a lot of money, an overseas buyer who really doesn’t care about paying an extra $500 a month,” said Ms. Murphy, who found such a buyer. “I was lucky. An apartment in the same line has been on the market since August. It had four deals fall apart.”

Some brokers recommend that sellers promise to pay all or part of the assessment. But whether to do so in a healthy market like this, Mr. Lembo said, “really depends on the condition of the apartment. The better the condition of the apartment, the better the building, the less apt the seller would be to kick in.”

What if an assessment is announced after a contract is signed but before the closing? Standard contractual language says the assessment must be paid by whoever owns the unit when it comes due, said Steven Wagner, a real estate lawyer at Wagner Davis in Manhattan. But as a practical matter, that often depends on who is most eager to conclude the deal.

Ms. Devens recently sold a one-bedroom in a Central Park West Art Deco building, an apartment owned by an elderly woman who was moving to an assisted-living complex in the Midwest. After the contract was signed for $500,000, a $10,000 assessment for structural work was announced. The buyers, a young couple purchasing their first apartment, “were digging their heels in and didn’t want to pay,” Ms. Devens said. The seller, who was ready to move on, agreed to foot the bill.

Things can go the other way, too. Two years ago, Mercedes Menocal Gregoire, a sales agent at Stribling & Associates, sold a friend’s $3.2 million TriBeCa loft to a wealthy out-of-state couple buying it as a pied-à-terre. The couple had signed the contract knowing that several years earlier, the 3,000-square-foot apartment had been assessed $100,000-plus as its share for repairing shoddy work done by the sponsor.

“Two days before closing, there was a notice under the door announcing a $200,000 assessment for more work to the building,” Ms. Gregoire said.

“I cannot tell you how stressful those two days were.” Eventually, after learning that the assessment hadn’t been deliberately hidden, the buyers agreed to pay.

Ms. Gregoire argues that the buyers actually profited from the building’s unfortunate situation. “I would have gotten so much more money for this apartment if it wasn’t in this building,” she said, “maybe $500,000 more.”

Con Ed Wins Approval for a Big One-Time Increase in Rates for Electric Service in 2008

2008-12-19T17:21:00.000-05:00

March 20, 2008
Con Ed Wins Approval for a Big One-Time Increase in Rates for Electric Service
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
Residents of New York City will see the biggest one-time increase in their bills for electric service in April 2008, after state regulators approved a $425 million increase in rates for Consolidated Edison.
Starting in April 2008, the typical household in the city will pay about $4.25 more each month for the delivery of power by the company, whose string of recent failures has drawn heated criticism from customers and elected officials, regulators said. In Westchester County, where the company is also the main utility, the typical residential customer will pay about $5.60 a month more.
The rate increase, which was unanimously approved by the 5 members of the state’s Public Service Commission at a meeting in Lower Manhattan, is a fraction of the $1.2 billion increase that Con Ed sought in the Spring of 2007.
The pending increase, the fourth in four years, applies only to the company’s charges for the delivery of power. The cost of the power itself, which accounts for more than 60% of the typical customer’s bill, is determined separately. In some cases, Con Ed delivers power to customers who buy it from other suppliers.
The commissioners made clear that they were reluctant to approve such a large increase for a company that has had so many problems, most notably the Queens blackout in July 2006 and a steam-pipe explosion in Manhattan in the summer of 2007, which killed a pedestrian. They also criticized the company’s management for being less than completely clear and open in its responses to regulators.
“I have great misgivings voting in favor of a rate increase given my term on this commission,” said Cheryl A. Buley, who has been a commissioner since June 2006.
She said that she lacked confidence that Con Ed had provided regulators with accurate estimates of its costs, and she criticized it for seeking approval of additional bonuses for executives in the wake of “a very serious reliability failure.”
But Ms. Buley and the other commissioners said that they recognized the company’s need for money to pay for improvements in its distribution network and to cope with the steady growth of the New York metropolitan region. For example, Con Ed is building 10 substations over a 10-year period.
In a statement, the company responded to the commission’s action and the commissioners’ remarks by saying Con Ed “has done a great deal to keep the power flowing safely and reliably, but we cannot meet expectations for maintaining and improving the system without greater investments.”
Elected officials who have been criticizing Con Ed for the last 20 months were quick to condemn the commission for approving the rate increase.
“Every rate hike the P.S.C. approves — and this is a fairly large one — without insisting on changes in the way Con Edison operates, is them aiding and abetting Con Edison’s fleecing of the ratepayers of New York,” said Michael N. Gianaris, an assemblyman from Queens.
“I understand the need for money to improve infrastructure,” Mr. Gianaris said. “The infrastructure has been neglected by Con Edison for so long that they need to fix it. But they’re just approving rate hikes and crossing their fingers” that the service will be more reliable, he said.
The rate increase covers just one year, so Con Ed is likely to be back in a month or two seeking to raise rates for the next year. In 2005, the commission voted to let the company raise rates in stages over the next three years.
When Con Ed first requested the increase almost a year ago, the company said a typical residential customer in the city received a bill of $70 a month for electricity. Based on that estimate, the increase approved on Wednesday would amount to slightly more than 6 percent, on average, for the company’s 2.7 million residential customers.
About 500,000 businesses of all sizes receive their electricity through Con Ed. On average, they will see their bills rise less, on a percentage basis, because the cost of delivery accounts for less of their overall bills.
Until recently, the commission had been considering a bigger increase in rates, a total of as much as $600 million. But they pared that down in part by agreeing to spread some of the costs Con Ed has already incurred over the next 10 years.
Since 2005, Con Ed has spent $1.1 billion more than it had received specific authority for, regulators said. The commission has ordered an audit to determine just how and where all of that money has gone.
One of the commissioners, Robert E. Curry Jr., faulted the company and its board of directors for a lack of accountability on its major expenditures.
“We all expect accountability for success and, unfortunately, for failures,” Mr. Curry said. “To me, at least there’s been no visible accountability for the failures of the Long Island City outage.”

Using Solar Power to Save Money and Pollute Less

2008-12-19T17:18:00.000-05:00

Sustainability is a trend that is growing not only here, but also throughout the world.
It is an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the future. Essentially you could think of it as balanced use of the planet, where the use doesn’t outstrip regeneration.
Locally there have been a number of movements towards this goal, particularly with solar power. Butte County is particularly well suited for solar power. Climate records show that we have 219 sunny days and 57 partly cloudy days per year on average, which makes solar power viable. It wasn’t always that way, and it’s only now that solar power is becoming economically viable due to increased electricity costs, increased solar cell efficiency, and state rebate programs to help home and business owners kick-start the process.

There’s three reasons to do solar power on your home or business:
1 - You want the economic benefit of reduced power costs.
2 - You want to do something environmentally sound.
3 - You have no other power options available, such as a summer cabin.
Most often it’s the first two, but there are some limits you should be aware of related to economics. Solar power can be an expensive proposition to install, even with rebates. Thus unless you have money to burn you have to plan it carefully to ensure that you get payback on your investment. You also need an unobstructed view of the southern sky.
I myself have placed two solar power systems into use, one on my home, and another for Chico Unified School District on Little Chico Creek School, which is the largest solar power system for a school north of Sacramento.
In both cases, there were high power uses going on, which made the economics easy. My home had a deep well, a pool, and an upper and lower A/C unit, making my power bills hit as much as $500 per month in the summer! I’m studying a design for a third solar power system on my new home, purchased just last year, but its more energy efficient, making the planning task more detailed.
Typically, you’ll need to have a power bill of at least $150-200 per month or more to make solar viable for your home as a retrofit. However, if you are building a new home, planning solar into the building process is less expensive.
Some forward thinking developers are now offering turnkey solar built into new homes, such as is being done in Fresno. So far, I haven’t seen Chico developers offer such an option, but I think the time is right for our Building Industry Association, Chamber of Commerce, and City Government to work together to make such an offering practical.
The way solar power works for homes and businesses is by a reverse metering scheme based on Time Of Use (TOU). During peak power need times of noon to 6PM on weekdays, electricity is far more valuable than during off-peak times. PG&E will credit any power generated during those peak times as much as 4 times the value of electricity used during off-peak times.
It’s sort of like the stock market, sell high and buy low.
To achieve this, your home or business has to outfitted with a TOU Meter, so that PG&E can track when you use power. Then when you connect a solar power system to that, it will log when you are generating power during midday peak times, and when you are drawing power during off-peak times. The trick is to generate exactly enough power to result in a net-zero energy use, because PG&E does not pay you back for any excess power generated.
A solar power system generates DC voltage from the solar panels, and when they are working at peak you can expect a 15% solar to electricity power conversion efficiency. The DC power from the solar cells must then be converted and phased to match the 60 cycle AC power grid. This is done with DC to AC inverters, usually mounted near your mains breaker box. There’s about a 10% conversion loss in that process.
If you are planning to do solar, there are a few things you should know:
• Pick a reliable contractor experienced with the process, particularly with the California Energy Commission rebate process, because a mistake there can cost you a lot of time and money.
• Be prepared to spend money or to seek financing. There are low cost state-sponsored finance programs available.
• Be patient. The process takes time, often more than you think, especially in a retrofit. There are applications, permits, tests, and government interactions involved.
• Solar will immediately add to the resale value of your home, that value never decreases. So when you get a state rebate, say for $10,000 towards the purchase, you get to keep that as equity.
• Financing should be balanced in such a way so that it is equal to or less than your average existing electricity bill, so that you are paying yourself back. When the system is paid off, then you’ll have zero payments for energy.
• You’ll be switched to a yearly billing system rather than a monthly. If your solar system doesn’t produce enough electricity to cover all your use, at the end of the year you’ll have what’s called a “true-up” bill, which could be large, but averaged over the year will be much smaller. Be sure to plan for that.
• Right now, solar isn’t for everyone as its still a rather expensive and complicated process to install as a retrofit. However, as solar panel efficiencies increase, and more companies get online producing solar cells, the costs will come down, as happens with any new technology.
• There are state and federal tax credits for any solar installation which when figured in with rebates, can make the project quite attractive, and in some cases, a very low cost.
Given that energy demands are only going to go up, and prices will naturally follow that demand, if you have high electric bills or have a business that could benefit, solar power is certainly worth looking into.

Saving Money with Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFLs)

2008-12-19T17:11:00.000-05:00

Retail Stores Find Fluorescent Savings
By Ken Belson
Jordan Marsh, an amateur boxer from New City, N.Y., tried on boxing gloves at the Modell’s flagship store in Times Square. The store received a grant from Consolidated Edison to replace all of its lighting with energy-efficient bulbs. (Photos: Kirsten Luce for The New York Times)
When it comes to energy efficiency, the big guys and little the guys often grab the headlines. The big guys — office towers and the like — crow about the latest technology in their gleaming buildings. The little guys — homeowners — weatherize their windows, turn down the heat and wear sweaters at night.
The combined effect of these energy-saving steps — particularly better lights — may even end up dimming New York’s skyline over the next decade or so.
But New York is also filled with thousands of small stores and offices that get little attention yet consume a big chunk of the city’s electricity. Con Edison has 124,900 customers in its major commercial service classification that use fewer than 1,500 kilowatts of electricity each month. Together, they use about 35 percent of the electricity Con Edison provides.
While many small business owners want to cut their electric bills, they often lack the money to invest in high-tech solutions or the time to file the paperwork to get rebates from the city, state or Con Edison.
The Utility Player saw this up close at Menna’s Quality Meats and Salumeria in the Bronx last month. The owner, Michael Menna, cut his energy bill not by installing more efficient air-conditioners, lights and refrigerators, but by just turning things off.
In the fixtures above his deli counter, Mr. Menna removed two of the four fluorescent bulbs. He turned off one refrigerator that held bottles of Snapple, which he stuffed into a refrigerator with sodas. In the back of the store, he unplugged one of his two chest freezers and one of his three walk-in refrigerators. These steps helped Mr. Menna shave $600 off his $4,000 electric bill.
For small business owners, “It’s hard to sit down and do a sophisticated financial analysis to learn about what the best technologies are and where to get the capital,” said Jennifer Amann, the director of the buildings program at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. “Who has the time to become experts in energy efficiency lighting and the most efficient ice makers?”
But a growing number of retail outlets in the city are taking advantage of rebate programs run by Con Edison and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Modell’s, for instance, is in the middle of trying to replace the lights at many of its 35 stores throughout the city. Even accounting for the recent decline in energy prices, the results have been startling.
Modell’s worked with Public Energy Solutions on a plan to replace every light — 3,116 in all — at its flagship store on West 42nd Street. The estimated savings were so amazing that Dave Fletcher, the executive vice president of facilities at Modell’s, had another lighting company check the math. Satisfied, he took the numbers to his bosses, who approved plan.
“Based on these statistics, we had to show the executive committee that this would pay for itself,” Mr. Fletcher said. “We weren’t going to do it on a promise.”
In April 2007, Public Energy replaced every light inside and outside the store. On the first floor, Modell’s got rid of the 400-watt metal halide lights and replaced them with four 32-watt bulbs that use less than half the number of watts, yet provide more light because the fixtures were lowered five feet.
“It’s much brighter,” Wes Alexander, the store manager, said of the new lights, which were installed in April 2007. “We’ve gotten a few comments from people asking if we changed the store.”
Modell’s marquee sign in Times Square also uses more energy-efficient lights now.
Outside the store, the company replaced the 1,300 11-watt incandescent bulbs with three-watt cold cathode bulbs that give off as much light as a 10-watt bulb.
The price tag for the project was $50,805.44. But Public Energy Solutions secured rebates from Con Edison worth $30,480, so Modell’s ended up paying $20,325.44, or about the cost of the labor. But the store’s electric bill also fell by about 17 percent, so Modell’s ended up saving $32,750 in the first year.
The savings were outsized partly because the store was in Times Square, which allowed Modell’s to take advantage of a special rebate program run by Con Edison. To delay having to upgrade its infrastructure in congested areas like in Midtown, the utility hires vendors, including Public Energy Solutions and Lime Energy, to get customers to cut their electricity use. One way to do that is to install more efficient lights.
(The energy research and development authority has a similar electricity reduction program, but its incentives are not as extensive in places like Times Square.)
Because the vendors did a good job of getting customers to tamp down their electricity use, Con Edison can defer investments worth about $230 million (about the cost of a new substation) between 2005 and 2012, according to Steven Mysholowsky, who runs the demand side management program at the utility.
But because Con Edison had to pay only about $35 million to the vendors, “It was cheaper to do this than paying for a new substation earlier,” he said.
On Friday, the company put out another request looking for vendors willing to find more customers willing to reduce their electricity use.
Mr. Mysholowsky said that while vendors try to win savings from big building owners, they also work with pizzerias, delis, clothing stores and other mom-and-pop shops. In some cases, the vendors will give away free compact fluorescent light bulbs to help meet their quota of energy savings.
“Vendors will do whatever they need to do,” he said.