Decarbonizing Buildings From The Outside With Hydronic Shell – CleanTechnica

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Heating and cooling buildings is responsible for more climate-warming emissions than the transportation sector, which means if we want to lower total emissions, decarbonizing the built environment is essential. That is relatively easy to do for new buildings that can be built to Passive House standards from the start, but it is a hard thing to do in existing buildings which need to get rid of boilers and furnaces fueled by oil, propane, or methane gas. To complete a conversion to heat pumps or other low carbon options often requires the installation of new pipes, ductwork, refrigerant lines, and indoor air handlers. That sounds easy, but it can significantly disrupt the lives and businesses of existing occupants. Hydronic Shell may be one answer to that problem.

Engineer David Goldstein thinks there is a better way. He has developed a technology that can decarbonize the central heating and cooling systems in large buildings from the outside. Last month, the state of New York gave Goldstein a vote of confidence. As a finalist in the state’s Empire Technology Prize, Hydronic Shell Technologies won $250,000 with the potential for an additional $750,000 if it meets certain milestones. The state’s competition aims to foster emerging tech that can decarbonize heating systems in buildings seven stories or taller without displacing their occupants.

Goldstein has seen how disruptive conventional clean heat retrofits can be. He shared a before and after image with Canary Media that shows an affordable housing decarbonization project he worked on in 2020. Before a new minisplit heat pump system was installed in the building, one tenant’s wall was filled with shelves of photos, books, and mementos. Afterward, an indoor minisplit unit connected to refrigerant lines took up most of the wall space. The New York City Housing Authority has found that moving residents’ furniture and other possession takes so much time that the retrofits were not cost effective. ​“It’s just extremely difficult” to retrofit an occupied apartment, Goldstein said.

Hydronic Shell, which is based in Queens, New York, hopes to skip those hassles and start installing its first exterior upgrades this fall. Its technology encapsulates heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment into prefabricated insulated panels that can be bolted to a building’s exterior. The panels mount on the facade of a building like Tetris pieces and connect seamlessly to electric, central air-source heat pumps on the roof or ground-source heat pumps in the basement to deliver heating and cooling via the hydronic system.

Faster, Cheaper Decarbonizing

Hydronic Shell could make decarbonizing upgrades much less invasive and faster to install at lower cost, Goldstein said. That would be a welcome improvement if his systems can deliver the promised results. He said his panelized approach was inspired by the whole-building decarbonization strategy known as Energiesprong — which is Dutch for ​“energy leap” — that was pioneered in the Netherlands and has spread to other parts of Europe. But Hydronic Shell’s patented approach is the first to build HVAC components into the panel itself.

The Hydronic Shell technology ​“is incredible,” said Jared Rodriguez, principal at Emergent Urban Concepts. ​“I want to see it commercialized as fast as possible.” Rodriguez advises building owners, state agencies, and other organizations on building decarbonization. He also provides guidance to Hydronic Shell and other startups, but said he has no financial stake in Goldstein’s company. He said it is vital to add ideas like the Hydronic Shell technology to the building decarbonization toolbox. Buildings account for about a third of the nation’s annual carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and space heating is the biggest source of onsite climate pollution.

While the Hydronic Shell’s innovation is not suitable for every large building, especially those with complex exterior shapes, large windows, or historic facades that owners don’t want covered up, it could apply to virtually any building with regular cutout windows, including schools, hospitals, and offices. For now, Goldstein is focused on multifamily buildings. There are about 11 million multifamily units in the US that need major envelope and HVAC upgrades in order to achieve net-zero emissions, Goldstein said. He estimates that Hydronic Shell’s tech could be applied to about half of those buildings.

Inside A Hydronic Shell Retrofit Panel

Inside each Hydronic Shell panel there are about 6 inches of rigid insulation around an upgraded window, copper pipes for the hydronic system, and galvanized steel ducts for carrying fresh, filtered, and warm or cool air from air handling units on the roof. The pipes run through a metal box that blows the air into the interior via a duct beneath the window. Because everything is built in, contractors only need to remove the original window to allow air to freely flow from the new HVAC system and do a little finishing work, Goldstein said.

Hydronic Shell’s tech provides potential decarbonization benefits beyond the building it’s installed on. The system could connect to a thermal energy network that allows buildings to share heat, reducing demand on the power grid so that electrification can go faster, Rodriguez said. That ability to interconnect just isn’t possible when using individual heat pumps equipment in each unit.

The first demonstration Hydronic Shell project will begin soon in Syracuse, New York. Last year, the company won a $3 million grant through the national Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge to retrofit 418 Fabius St., a seven-story affordable-housing building owned by the Syracuse Housing Authority. For that project, Hydronic Shell is teaming up with Cycle Retrotech, a multifamily housing retrofit specialist that will manage swapping the building’s gas boiler for Hydronic Shell’s heat-pump-based system. Electrification startup BlocPower is helping with community engagement.

In addition to beautifying the edifice and improving indoor air quality for residents, Hydronic Shell’s tech will make the building better sealed and insulated. That means smaller, less costly heat pumps can be installed and run at lower, more efficient temperatures. Taitem Engineering, the engineering firm working on the project, found that the system will slash the amount of energy the structure needs for heating by a staggering 95%, Goldstein said. If so, the reduction in utility bills will more than pay for the upgrade over time.

Goldstein expects construction on the project to start in fall 2025 and wrap up within nine months. He declined to give an estimate of the project’s total cost, but said it would be half that of a conventional retrofit with a new facade and HVAC system. He anticipates that installation costs will fall further as Hydronic Shell and its partners deploy the system on more structures. Through the New York tech prize, which introduced finalists to real estate owners, Goldstein said the startup is lining up additional projects. Once the new technology is proven, he expects customers to be lining up to get it installed on their own buildings. Saving the planet may not be a priority for everyone, but slashing heating and cooling costs definitely is.