These Brooklyn homeowners couldn't afford to go green. Then help came

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After two decades in her century-old brick rowhouse in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, Marisol Genao was used to some quirks.

For example, when she turned on the light in the kitchen, the light in the living room flickered. Before she showered, she knew she had to wait 10 minutes for the water to warm up. And if she wanted to turn on her air conditioning, she first had to go to the basement to adjust the breakers.

“I had to do a lot of repairs in my house,” said Genao, a pharmacy technician. “My house is old and everything is expensive now.”

But in August, Genao, 48, received a reprieve as part of a program called EnergyFit that upgraded her electrical panel, installed a heat pump water heater and replaced her broken gas stove with an induction range. They sealed the windows to keep their house warm in winter and cool in summer.

Genao was excited and told her colleagues about the improvements.

“Everyone in my job says, 'You're kind of funny.' Some people are happy about a new car. “You’re happy with a water heater,” Genao said. “I said, 'Guys, you don't understand!' In these cold winters you want to take a shower and wait for the water to warm up.'”

All the work was free.

EnergyFit, launched in 2024, is operated by Pratt Center for Community Development, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation and IMPACCT Brooklyn and funded with federal and private funding. The program aims to repair and retrofit 70 two- and three-family homes in a handful of Brooklyn neighborhoods within two years.

These homes often have problems and their owners may not have the resources to take care of them – let alone take steps to transition away from fossil fuels. EnergyFit employees work as case managers to help homeowners navigate the complicated technical and bureaucratic processes, coordinate with tenants, and prepare them for future upgrades.

“Many of these households are in communities that have not been invested in for a long time, where people are house rich, cash strapped, and so far behind on maintenance that they are unable to live on at all Switching to Electrification and Efficiency “You have to solve these other home maintenance issues,” said Rebekah Morris-Gonzalez, director of climate initiatives at Pratt.

“The benefits that will result from this will not only lie in the reduction of CO2 emissions. It’s really about health improvements for households and convenience,” she added.

EnergyFit is testing a model to understand what is required for this type of work, with a focus on small buildings. Morris-Gonzalez said after a year the team will be able to determine the costs associated with retrofitting these types of homes and measure the carbon reduction and impact on utility bills.

Buildings are New York's largest source of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

But fewer than 3 percent of the city's existing buildings have been retrofitted to significantly reduce those emissions, according to Andrea Mancino, CEO of Bright Power, which worked with Pratt more than a decade ago to conduct research that eventually led to EnergyFit.

New York laws requiring efficiency measures and carbon reductions only apply to large buildings – about 50,000 of them. However, these laws do not apply to smaller buildings, including the approximately 350,000 two- to four-family homes in the five boroughs.

“These big initiatives leave out an entire building stock,” Mancino said. “Most of these smaller buildings – particularly brownstones – were built before 1930, and many have had nothing done since then to improve energy efficiency, other than perhaps replacing a boiler.”

Every job is individual

This year, EnergyFit has completed work on 12 homes, with an average cost of $27,000 per home. So far, only a fraction of the costs have been covered by funding from the state and energy suppliers.

EnergyFit's work begins with an assessment of the property before actual repairs and the installation of new equipment are carried out in the house for around three to five days. The team examines the home's electrical system, plumbing, lead paint and energy efficiency levels. They also look out for hazards such as mold, a leaky roof, asbestos, gas leaks, and the presence of carbon monoxide.

Sometimes the team discovers a problem in a home that prevents them from moving forward with the EnergyFit project, such as if there was previous electrical work that was never registered with the city. Each property requires a tailored approach, and even if the team cannot complete work on a home through the EnergyFit program, they will refer homeowners to other resources.

“It would be nice if we could handle projects like a machine and crank them out one at a time, but every property, every homeowner has its own story,” said Ryan Chavez, director of tiny home programs at Cypress Hills Local Development Company.

After the home makes repairs as needed—which may include installing new carbon monoxide and smoke detectors or repairing a leaky roof—the team air seals, adds insulation, and installs low-flow plumbing fixtures and LED lights to replace incandescent bulbs. They also modernize the electrical panels and wiring and replace gas stoves with induction stoves in the kitchens of the homeowner and his tenants.

In particular, the stove switch improves air quality by eliminating the harmful pollutants emitted by gas stoves that have been linked to the development or exacerbation of respiratory diseases.

If there is still money left over, some homeowners may consider purchasing an electric water heater.

“Many participants in the program are retired or approaching retirement age and therefore are unable to do some of this work on their own,” said Paul Sobers, project manager at IMPACCT Brooklyn. “It definitely helps them stay in the neighborhood they’ve lived in for decades.”

While the work doesn't completely convert households to electricity from fossil fuels, it does get them partially on the path to doing so.

“There are big, ambitious policies at the city and state level to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency, but as we work in communities like Cypress Hills and East New York,” Chavez said, “it’s really important to us to make sure that small Homeowners, particularly lower-income and middle-income households, do not be left behind in this transition.”

Constance Dawson, 61, noticed that her Bedford-Stuyvesant duplex became less drafty and much quieter after EnergyFit completed the work. At some point she would like to replace her oil heating system.

“With the system we see now and the money savings we see with Con Ed, we think this could definitely be the right path for us,” Dawson said. “We need to do some paperwork and see how much it will cost us to switch from oil to gas or electricity.”