05 The Home

Room requirements

Con Edison has specific rules about which rooms must have units in a decommissioning submission. Get this wrong and the job gets bounced back.

The rule

Any room with a door and a bed needs a unit. If it functions as a livable, decently-sized room — even if no one currently sleeps there — it must have a unit assigned.

Borderline rooms

Tiny rooms with a bed

If the room is very small and the bed can be removed or covered (showing it’s clearly not a sleeping area), Con Edison will often let it slide and not require a unit there.

The bed needs to be packed away or have something placed on top of it indicating non-sleeping use.

Decently-sized rooms with no current occupant

Doesn’t matter if it’s empty today. If it’s a livable, decently-sized room with a door, it needs a unit.

Open spaces (no door)

These are sized differently. See Sizing rules — open-concept for living/dining/kitchen flows.

How to handle on the sales call

Walk every door. For each room:

Note dimensions (rough square footage)
Confirm with homeowner: “Is this a sleeping area or storage?”
If sleeping area or could be: it needs a unit
If clearly storage with no bed visible: can be exempted

When in doubt, include the unit. Oversizing or oversold is safer than underselling.

Pitfalls

Skipping a small room with a bed. Even tiny rooms with beds need either a unit or the bed clearly removed/covered. If Con Edison sees a bed on the layout with no unit, the job gets bounced.

Skipping an empty room. Decently-sized livable rooms count even if no one currently sleeps there. The Newtonian layout has to reflect reality.

Per-day install capacity

Once you’ve finalized unit count, the install team can fit:

Detached home: up to 11 units in a day
Fully attached home: ~7 units in a day (more piping work, tighter spaces)

If your unit count exceeds these, plan for a two-day install or split the job. See Install day.