In New York City, heat pumps that fit in apartment windows promise big emissions cuts [Video]

For 27 years, the heat in Regina Fred’s Queens apartment building came from a noisy steam radiator that she couldn’t control and sometimes didn’t come on at all, leaving her shivering. Sometimes, the radiators ran so hot that residents had to keep their windows open in the middle of winter for relief.

That all changed a few months ago, when she got a window-mounted heat pump as part of a pilot project by the New York City Housing Authority aimed at cutting energy costs and lowering emissions. Suddenly, all Fred has to do is touch a dial to bump her temperature up or down, and she found herself enjoying “a very good silence.”

“They did a demonstration for me and I was thrilled,” Fred said. Now, her grown children call the heat pump “the best thing” she has in her apartment, and her neighbors have knocked on her door to check out the unit.

NEW YORK CITY TAKING A SLICE OUT OF …