The Real Estate Board of New York to The Department of Environmental Conservation on HPD’s Part 496 Variance Application HQA-XAFT-ZD26T

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The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) is the City's leading real estate trade association representing commercial, residential, and institutional property owners, builders, managers, investors, brokers, salespeople, and other organizations and individuals active in New York City real estate. REBNY appreciates this opportunity to comment on the HPD's refrigerant variance application to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

REBNY strongly supports HPD's application for a variance from the recently promulgated rules on the phase out of A1 refrigerants. As the application states, all manufacturers of VRF systems have acknowledged that they are not ready to provide equipment that can use A2L refrigerants at this time. In addition, the NYC Fire Code does not currently allow for the use of A2L refrigerants. Modifying the Code requires an act of the New York City Council and as no legislation is currently under consideration to do so it is impossible to predict when A2L refrigerants will be usable in New York City. Therefore, it is reasonable for those in the process of planning or constructing facilities that use VRF systems to be allowed for the time being to proceed using A1 refrigerants.

In addition, HPD has taken considerable effort to demonstrate that their variance would not cause significant emissions compared to an approach that would be compliant with the rules. REBNY supports DEC relying on such analysis for future submissions for projects with comparable equipment and leak prevention approaches.

Thank you for this opportunity to weigh in on this matter.