Success Stories

The HUD CHP Screening Tool was developed under a collaborative effort between the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Energy as a tool to evaluate combined cooling, heating, and power in multi-family housing.

Introduction

The economic evaluation of proposed installations of combined cooling, heating, and power (CHP) systems in multi-family housing units requires calculations that consider building heating, cooling, hot water, and electrical loads, the costs of power and natural gas, and the simulated performance of generators, chillers, boilers, and water heaters. Sometimes it is possible to simplify this process to get a “go/no-go” answer as to whether or not a building owner or operator should look more carefully into CHP and perhaps enlist some engineering support in conducting a site inspection and conducting a rigorous economic analysis. The HUD CHP Screening Tool is one of several programs available for “screening level” CHP analysis; this tool is “non-technical” and is directed specifically toward building owners and operators.

Summary

Users of the HUD CHP Screening Tool need to type in data from their monthly power and fuel bills for one consecutive 12 month period as well as some utility rate information. The program uses these data to estimate fuel use for space and water heating and power consumption for air conditioning. The utility costs and rate information are combined with correlations for costs of generator equipment, installation, and maintenance to estimate simple payback periods for a hypothetical CHP system relative to the non-CHP system reflected in the utility data. Sites with low estimated simple payback periods are encouraged to look more seriously into CHP for both its energy savings and cost savings opportunities. Sites with high simple payback periods can save the time and effort of examining CHP in detail with assurances that they are not missing a great opportunity.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this section or the CHP Technologies Program in general, please contact us.