686 East 234th Street

How does 686 East 234th Street compare with other multifamily housing buildings in New York City?

The latest disclosures cover 33,022 multifamily housing buildings in New York City, out of 48,310 buildings citywide. 686 East 234th Street's ENERGY STAR score of 70 compares with an average of 63 across the 22,829 that report a score; it scores higher than 51% of them and lower than 48%. Its site EUI of 99.6 kBtu/ft² is about 33% above the average of 74.9 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 6.1 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 17% above the group average of 5.2 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 46,530 sq ft, it is about half of the average floor area of 100,951 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1926, 26 years earlier than the group's average year built (1952). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 59,945 multifamily housing buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 70 and a site EUI of 59.0 kBtu/ft².

How has 686 East 234th Street's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 3 New York City disclosures for 686 East 234th Street, covering report years 2022–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 38 in 2022 to 70 in 2024 (+32 points). Site EUI moved from 134.1 kBtu/ft² (2022) to 99.6 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 26% decrease. Reported emissions went from 353 tCO₂e to 284 tCO₂e over the same span (down 19%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 70 mean?

ENERGY STAR scores run from 1 to 100 and are computed by the EPA's Portfolio Manager as a percentile against similar buildings nationwide, adjusted for climate, size and use: a score of 70 means the building performs better than about 70% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 70 falls in band B — above median (70–84). It sits 5 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. In New York City, 43% of scored buildings are at 75 or above.

Site energy-use intensity (EUI) is the energy a building uses on site in a year divided by its floor area, in thousand Btu per square foot — lower is more efficient. 686 East 234th Street's 99.6 kBtu/ft² across 46,530 sq ft works out to about 4.6 billion Btu (1,358 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 127.5 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 178,946 kWh of electricity, 40,231 therms of natural gas and 5,798 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 686 East 234th Street to report its energy use?

686 East 234th Street reports under Local Law 84 (LL84), the legal basis of New York City's Energy and Water Data Disclosure program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record nyc:6261131:2024). Under Local Law 97, buildings over 25,000 sq ft face carbon caps with fines of $268 per metric ton of CO₂e over the limit, phasing in from 2024.