golden west tower

Description:

Golden West Tower is a senior affordable housing community in Torrance, California, with a total of 180 units comprised of studios and one-bedrooms.

Community Preservation Partners (CPP), a WNC company focused on development and preservation of affordable housing, secured Partner Energy’s services prior to the moderate rehab construction began on the property in 2019 in order to provide Enterprise Green Communities Certification support.

Enterprise Community Partners is a national nonprofit that focuses on increasing the supply of affordable housing. It launched the Enterprise Green Communities in 2004 as a “national green building program created with and for the affordable housing sector,” and focuses on “residents’ health and well-being.”

As outlined in the 2015 Enterprise Green Communities Criteria, the property required a minimum of 30 points in order to obtain certification.

The scope of work for EGC certification began during pre-construction, where Partner Energy identified all the materials and systems that are needed for EGC compliance. During the design stage, Partner Energy created an ASHRAE 90.1 whole-building energy model, which provided an opportunity to evaluate the equipment, appliances, and envelope assemblies. This was followed by a thorough review of the design plans, during which Partner Energy provided recommendations to meet the EGC criteria.

During construction, Partner Energy performed on-site verifications to ensure that all the measures and recommendations were implemented correctly. Post-build, Partner Energy completed and submitted the certificate application, along with all supporting documents.

Examples of recommendations that were implemented in order to improve the property and meet the EGC criteria:

  • Installed high efficacy lighting/LEDs, low flow fixtures, and ENERGY STAR® appliances
  • Installed heating and cooling equipment that were electric PTACs
  • Installed high performance windows
  • PV/solar hot water ready
  • Utility benchmarking is in place

Overall, there was an 7.69% improvement in energy performance compared to the baseline.

The project successfully obtained 38 points and was awarded the Enterprise Green Communities Certification in September 2021.