Brass Tacks
La Princesa Staff and your Board of Directors are determined to make available as much information as possible to keep you informed of our actions and any disclosures that need to be made. This page will include yearly plans and goals, necessary disclosures that are also mailed directly to you, and any important odds-and-ends that we'd like to share with you.
Annual Disclosure
The Davis-Stirling Act requires that Homeowners Associations in California disclose certain information to their members annually. A document with those disclosures is mailed to all members and included below for reference year-round. Included in this section there will also be other items that are of importance to all members
Important Topics
Here we will post those documents or links that the staff wants to share with you to keep those curious few informed.
- Water Source Heat Pump (WSHP)
In late 2018 the board of directors approved the replacement of all valves supplying water to the heat pumps in each unit. These valves have been selected individually for each unit to limit water flow in gallons per minute to that originally specified when La Princesa was constructed. This was done for a few reasons. 1) In 2017 a large leak originated on the terrace level that caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage. This showed that some owners were not actively maintaining their fixtures and posed potential hazards to their neighbors. 2) Previously, flow rate was not regulated by the association and some owners installed heat pumps that were oversized for their units. This causes a leeching affect that adversely affects the efficiency of their neighbor's units. 3) Working valves allow any HVAC technicians to isolate the heat pump rather than require a shut off of the entire stack. 4) Lastly, this project was done in conjunction with the replacement of the roof cooling tower and allowed a purge of all cooling lines in the building. This helped remove particulates that could potentially enter owner heat pumps and damage them.
Currently, any replacement of valves or heat pumps must be approved by the association and must fall within the specifications listed by Dan Daderian, the hired contractor who oversaw the valve replacement project. Please use this document: WSHP Selection (updated) before purchasing any heat pump.
Keep the following in mind:
- Not all heat pumps are equal. Your water flow rate will not be increased so be sure to select a heat pump that can operate under the flow rate assigned. If a heat pump does not have adequate flow it will shut itself off automatically.
- External booster pumps are not allowed. This will adversely affect your neighbors.
- Original unit specifications did not include ductwork. Instead, forced air was released into the plenum, or empty space, between your ceiling and the concrete floor above it. This means that forced-air will disperse and be lost in the open area. The solution is not to install a larger heat pump which will only cost you more in electric bills. Instead, consider installing properly insulated ductwork to direct forced air to specific rooms and bring greater efficiency to your heat pump and save money in the long run.
- Unfortunately, this building was not designed to have all heat pumps operate at one time. At best the flow rate could adequately supply 60% of all pumps. The new system which includes new valves, a new cooling tower, and new boilers should push that number to about 80%.