Property Management Headquarters, Tarrytown, NY 

71,000 sq. ft 
Installer: Blend Air Mechanical Corp 
Manufacturer: Fujitsu 
System: Air Source VRF heat pump combined with a high-efficiency ERV system 
Project Timeline: Phase One commissioned in March 2019 
Phase Two completion in late 2019  

Source: HeatSmart Commercial Clean Heating & Cooling (A Program of Sustainable Westchester)

Fujitsu’s air-source VRF (Variable Refrigerant Flow) heat pump system was selected to replace the building’s 47-year-old natural gas-fired rooftop units that are inefficient by today’s standards. The VRF system provides simultaneous heating and cooling throughout the building while the ERV (Enthalpy Recovery Ventilation) system recovers energy from exhaust air and transfers it to the incoming fresh air. By the end of Phase Two, the building will have 109 heating and cooling zones compared to 48 zones in the previous system. 

The new heat pump system will provide annual electricity and natural gas savings over the original system of 224,000 kWh and 38,800 therms respectively. This leads to a $62,000 annual cost reduction. The cost to upgrade the original system to a heat pump system versus a standard code minimum system is 9.6% higher. As a result, the simple payback for upgrading from a code minimum system to heat pumps is just 3 years. Based on the results of the analysis, the project was fast-tracked by the customer.