The built environment includes any physical place designed and/or constructed by humans. It comprises all the physical parts of where we live, including our homes, the buildings where we work and socialize, hospitals, schools, our streets, open spaces and infrastructure.
Building codes and state legislation will be needed to speed the energy conversion along. New codes will be required for new buildings and major renovations, smaller existing buildings (mostly residential or very small business), and larger buildings (mostly multifamily residential or businesses).
Thermal load is the amount of energy needed to be added or removed from a space by the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC) to keep occupants comfortable. Understanding the thermal load allows for rightsizing of an HVAC system. High-performance buildings seek to reduce these loads as much as possible.
Municipal buildings are those owned and/or operated by a municipality, in this case the city of Ithaca.
The city has determined that electrifying low-income housing will cost more than twice as much as electrifying other buildings. A specific plan will be compiled, piloted, and and implemented to address low-income housing retrofits.
