Not heating the neighborhood

SANDRA GUY sguy@suntimes.com April 20, 2012 5:48PM

Updated: April 21, 2012 2:15AM

Energy efficiency is out-performing glacially slow bank lending and home buying to provide jobs and more livable rental housing in South and West Side neighborhoods, as Chicagos Energy Savers program is proving.

The Chicago-based program is enabling landlords to invest in building upgrades that cut energy bills an average of 30 percent a year.

The Energy Savers program focuses on the most cost-effective improvements such as insulation, air sealing and heating-system upgrades.

But some owners are leveraging the latest technologies to do more.

Eight buildings in the West Woodlawn and South Chicago neighborhoods feature solar-thermal panels, high-efficiency water heaters and the latest smart boiler-control systems.

On a sunny day, the solar panels satisfy the entire buildings demands for hot water by supplying about 12,000 British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy.

The water heaters kick in when the panels cannot handle the whole load.

The systems in three buildings use smart boiler controls that adjust in real time how long a hot-water boiler stays on.

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Not heating the neighborhood