December 17, 2025 — Nationwide Competition Reveals Pinnacles of Design Construction
Best Residential/Hospitality/Excellence in Sustainability:
NYCHA Eastchester and Jackson Houses & Geothermal DHW and Heating Upgrade
The $65 million pilot project introduced a groundbreaking geothermal system tailored for dense, multifamily urban housing, setting a new standard in sustainable residential infrastructure. The existing traditional fossil-fuel-based domestic hot water systems were replaced with high-efficiency, closed-loop vertical geothermal heat pumps that will supply year-round hot water to 1,745 apartments across 17 multifamily buildings.
Jens Ponikau, Buffalo Geothermal, explains, we are achieving significantly higher efficiency by storing both hot and cold water. This counterintuitive approach enables our heat pumps to operate as a single-pass-through instant hot water heater, raising cold incoming water directly to 140°F (a 100+ degree temperature increase).
NYSERDA conducted a third-party verification that confirmed the system can produce 140°F water with a Coefficient of Performance (COP) of approximately 4.0 at a 32°F entering source temperature. This is about twice the efficiency typically achieved under those conditions. This verified performance was achieved using the older 410a refrigerant; results with the new 454b refrigerant are proving to be much better.
A project installed at 2435 Pacific Street includes two modified 454b units (nominally 30 tons each), which will operate at approximately 50-ton capacity each. We are excited to showcase this site as one of the Pre-Conference tour locations during NY-GEO 2026 Brooklyn.
We believe this represents a major step forward in efficiency and look forward to presenting the design details for the first time at NY-GEO 2026 Brooklyn.