SyracuseCoE’s May 2025 Research & Technology Forum featured a presentation from Hugh Henderson, Principal at Owahgena Consulting. An expert in geothermal and cold climate air source heat pumps, Henderson showcased his monitoring and evaluation work of the ground source heat pump system in a mixed-use building completed in 2022.
The building is a multi-family property in New Paltz, New York called Zero Place. A winner of the first-ever New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Buildings of Excellence Award for New Construction, Zero Place is LEED Platinum certified and is highly efficient, nearly reaching Phius passive house building standards.
Zero Place uses geothermal heat pumps for space heating and space cooling, as well as domestic water heating. Detailed monitoring was installed in the building to measure and analyze its energy performance over multiple years. The results demonstrated that the heat pump systems performed well, with considerable synergy from meeting the space conditioning and domestic hot water (DHW) loads using the same ground heat exchanger.
Analyzing the data, Henderson also found that the ground source heat pump (GSHP) system met both space conditioning and DHW loads with little to no impact on the electric grid. The GSHP system was more efficient and had lower peak demand impacts than all-electric options typically used in multifamily buildings.
Henderson’s report to NYSERDA is available for download on the agency’s Clean Heating & Cooling Reports page.
PRESENTATION:
Slides from this R&T Forum are available below.
SPEAKER:
Hugh Henderson, Principal, Owahgena Consulting
Hugh Henderson has more than 30 years of experience evaluating energy technologies through on-site evaluation, field monitoring, and energy simulations. He has worked with a wide array of conventional and innovative HVAC technologies. His areas of expertise include geothermal heat pumps, cold climate air source heat pumps (ccASHPs), innovative cooling systems, CHP, industrial processes, and heat recovery. He is an expert in advanced cooling and dehumidification technologies, as well as thermal storage systems.
Mr. Henderson holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Agricultural (Mechanical) Engineering from Cornell University. He is a Professional Engineer in New York and is an active member in several technical ASHRAE committees related to heat pumps, air conditioning, and residential HVAC. He is a member of ASHRAE TC 6.8 Geothermal Utilization.
Mr. Henderson is providing ongoing technical support to NYSERDA and the Joint Utilities in NY for the Clean Heat program that provides incentives for various heat pump technologies. He is developing standardized calculations for ccASHPs and ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) for the NY Technical Resource Manual as well as approaches for custom incentive calculations. He has also led field monitoring efforts on several of NYSERDA’s pilot field tests of ccASHPs (Hudson Valley, Brooklyn, Queens), GSHPs, VRF systems, and Air-to-Water Heat Pump systems.