A creative answer to one of the most pervasive issues in American public housing is being sought by one of the largest civic authorities in the country as the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has issued a challenge to design an affordable new all-electric heat pump for the 21st century.

NYCHA has made design challenges a part of its program before. As Grist noted, the agency has previously issued similar challenges to older generations of industrial manufacturers, including a late-90s contest to design more energy-efficient refrigerators for its properties, which at the time, did not offer ample enough space for the appliances. A design from Maytag won the contest and was widely adopted by a number of other regional housing authorities in order to reduce energy costs. 

Now, with the tragedy of this month’s devastating Bronx apartment fire in its recent purview, NYCHA is once again asking for help from the design community in solving a silent problem that has drawn increasing amount of scrutiny after a winter filled with similar deadly incidents. The contest also aims to keep NYCHA’s 300+ properties in line with the city’s overall green targets, held over from the de Blasio administration, which require an 80% cut in emissions by the year 2050. Between 70–75% of the agency’s heating systems currently operate on natural gas, according to Grist. The system has been well documented to have consistent failures.

The agency says it now wants to create a window frame-installed heating system and will spend a total of $263 million on their implementation in 24,000 units. The official design brief calls for a pump that costs no more than $3,000 per unit, with the added caveat that it be capable of being installed in less than two hours. The winning project is expected to be announced in June, with an 18-month development period to follow, which aims to produce up to 30 prototypes. The prototypes will be tested and installed by 2025. NYCHA says it has already received interest from cities as far away as Seattle and Boston looking to partner with the agency for a potential bulk order.

“I think it’s fair to say that the majority of our systems are at the end of their useful lives,” NYCHA's Vice President for Energy and Sustainability Vlada Kenniff said of her expectations for the challenge. “We want to be able to say, ‘You’re not going to have to go and find additional millions of dollars for an electrification option. You can affordably electrify the building now.’”