THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010207
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
The walls and ceiling are insulated. The refrigerator and commode are energy-efficient. There's even a ``geo-thermal loop'' sunk in the ground.
But of all the new, high-tech features in one of the model apartments in Young Terrace, Eula Carter liked one best: the plaster walls.
``I just love the walls,'' said the Young Terrace resident, running her hand over the swirled finish. ``You get so tired of looking at cinder blocks.''
The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority is in the midst of renovating 2,500 public housing units. In Diggs Town, housing officials already have built front porches to improve the apartments.
But they began to realize they weren't going far enough.
``The boiler system we have in these buildings is very old technology,'' said Tom Van Pelt, NRHA's modernization administrator. ``Why do we want to rely on old, inefficient technology when the 21st century is about to begin?''
Van Pelt, NRHA utilities manager Paul Cramer, and other NRHA officials have several goals: make the apartments more energy-efficient; give each tenant control over the utilities in their apartment, thus giving them responsibility; and make the apartments friendlier, nicer places to live.
So, they remodeled two units all the way through, from front door to back porch, and produced two model apartments on Nicholson Street in Young Terrace. One is called the ``Geo,'' because it uses a geo-thermal heat pump, and the other the ``Apollo,'' which has a conventional gas-fired water heater.
Basically, they look like small but typical single-family apartments.
Each one has central air and heat, instead of the old boiler-fed radiators and window units. Other features are low-wattage fluorescent lights and low-flow water faucets. The Geo has a geo-thermal coil sunk 120 feet into the ground to regulate the heat pump.
NRHA officials believe the units will pay for themselves in the energy savings alone. But they expect tenants will like them for other reasons: new stone patios, vinyl wire shelving in the closets, 30-inch instead of 20-inch stoves, and of course, the plaster walls.
``If there's one thing you always hear from the tenants, it's how much they dislike the cinder-block walls,'' Van Pelt said. ``They look institutional, they don't feel good. You find yourself counting the cinder blocks, and the ones that have been repeatedly repaired over the years look really bad.
``So, it cost $400 to plaster the walls in this apartment. Which is fine with me, because I love plaster.''
The new apartments also will make energy consumption fairer to all the tenants and easier to track, officials said. They hope to make the same improvements in public housing units across the city. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
TAMARA VONINSKI/The Virginian-Pilot
Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority official Tom Van Pelt,
left, and Nansemond Energy Savers consultant Daren Perry examine one
of the Young Terrace model apartments.
by CNB