$2.5M Dispute Delays Heating Upgrade in MA housing
QUINCY, MA The state declined to grant a variance for a heating-system replacement project for Quincy public housing because the new heating units do not comply with a new energy code that took effect July 1.
The state Board of Building Regulations and Standards rejected the Quincy Housing Authority’s variance appeal after a hearing last month, the authority’s director and Quincy’s inspectional services director said.
The appeal was filed after Jay Duca, the city’s inspectional services head, denied a contractor permits to install more than 400 heating units because they cannot be programmed to turn on and off at preset times. That programmability is a requirement of the latest International Energy Conservation Code, which took effect July 1 in Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, some residents of public housing in Quincy have been without heat for nearly a year.
The units that were to be installed – gas-powered, direct-vent wall furnaces similar to ones found in hotel rooms – are made by Rinnai America Corp. of Georgia.
Quincy Housing Authority officials want to use them to replace old, leaky and mold-prone steam radiators. The radiators often malfunction, leaving residents of Snug Harbor in Germantown and West Acres in West Quincy without heat.
Andrea Lindo, a Snug Harbor resident, told The Patriot Ledger that her heater has been broken since February and that the housing authority placed three standalone space heaters in her apartment. Lindo’s neighbor said she hasn’t had heat since 2009.
Housing Authority Director Jay MacRitchie declined to comment on specific tenants’ circumstances. He said eight of the authority’s 436 apartments are currently without heat, and that the authority spends about $50,000 annually to replace boilers.
MacRitchie said if the stimulus money does not come through, the authority will replace boilers as it customarily does – a short-term fix.
“It will be like saying, ‘We know you’re going to get a new car, but we’re going to replace the transmission,’” he said.
The $2.5 million for Quincy is a portion of $25 million in federal stimulus money that the state doled out for public-housing heating upgrades.
The state Department of Housing and Community Development, which approved the Rinnai system, “is still continuing to work with all parties to replace those old heating systems,” spokesman Phil Hailer said.
Hailer said if appeals of Duca’s denial are exhausted, the agency “will consider the feasibility of an alternative, comparable, conforming heating system.”
Asked about the standstill, Christopher Walker, spokesman for Mayor Thomas Koch, said the mayor “doesn’t overrule his inspectors.”
Duca and Quincy’s fire chief have criticized the proposed system as inadequate to heat multi-room apartments. The system requires wall fans and gaps in doorways to circulate hot air. Duca said no system of its type has been approved for use in Massachusetts.
The Board of Building Regulations and Standards voted on May 5 to grant the Quincy Housing Authority a variance to use the heating system under the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code.
Shortly thereafter, the city granted permits to install 10 of the heating units, a test run called for in the housing authority’s contract with Rinnai. When the company returned in September for the rest of the needed city permits, it was turned down because the new code had taken effect.
The Board of Building Regulations and Standards agreed, declining to grant the authority a second variance after an Oct. 19 hearing.
“You’ve got to meet today’s codes,” Duca said.
