Regina Fred touches one of her window-mounted heat pumps in her apartment in the Queens borough of New York, on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. Regina Fred touches one of her window-mounted heat pumps in her apartment in the Queens borough of New York, on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. The heat pump, part of a pilot project by the New York City Housing Authority, is aimed at cutting energy costs and lowering emissions.
and commercial areas should “be a priority area” to maintain the growth necessary to meet national climate pledges worldwide. The, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, representing a huge sector of people who could use less energy with heat pumps.to make big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions over the next decades.
Eric Wilson, a senior research engineer for the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, led a team that analyzed heat pump performance in various electric grid scenarios and found even the lowest-efficiency pump would cut greenhouse gas emissions and save on operating costs in every U.S. state. That analysis didn’t include the kind of pump being tested in Queens because it wasn’t yet on the scene, but Wilson said he would expect similar results.
Gradient and Midea, the two companies making the units in the pilot project at Woodside House, downsized it all into something that looks a bit like a window air conditioner but with a much lower profile. Exterior and interior halves drape over a sill to leave the window mostly unobscured. Gradient, one of the companies, says its unit installs in 15 minutes and plugs into an ordinary wall outlet.
Decorations adorn one of Regina Fred’s window-mounted heat pumps in her apartment in the Queens borough of New York, on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024.