This page is for the St Mary’s Decarbonisation project. Over the next few months we will be creating a plan and engaging with stakeholders to deliver a detailed proposal for reducing the carbon footprint of the buildings by looking at how to phase out gas and improve energy efficiency.

We have started looking into the Return on Investment calculations and have provided a summary of the methodology here.

The other aspect we are investigating is how we can integrate heat pumps into the church and parish centre so that they give good levels of comfort and excellent performance. For the church we are assessing the possibility of using a commercially available hot water heat pump (using carbon dioxide as the refrigerant) to heat the existing radiators via a plate and frame heat exchanger (matching the flow rate and temperature of the existing boiler output). For the parish centre we are looking into a multi-split air-to-air heat pump system which can deliver rapid heating for times of use (potentially with the advantage that it can provide a communal cool space in the event of a heat wave, powered from on-site solar panels). For general information about domestic heat pumps, why not look at our guide here.

Project Background:

We are looking at the route to complete energy decarbonisation of St Mary’s church, parish centre and presbytery. This involves creating robust business cases for removal of on-site fossil fuel combustion and transistion to electricity for all energy needs. Furthermore it examines the benefit of on-site generation from solar panels and on-site storage with batteries and/or thermal storage. Whilst the economic case is of interest to many, the benefit in carbon dioxide reduction terms is within the project scope.

Learning from this project will be posted on this page. It is expected that learning will include Finance-related matters (how to communicate the business case, how to establish a methodology to give confidence to fully understand installer suggestions and quotations, …), Buildings-related matters (how to collect necessary building fabric information, how to develop a design that respects the character and fabric of the building, …) and Laudato Si’-related matters (how to establish that the project has strong environmental benefit, how to engage parishioners with the project, how to celebrate positive change, …).

If you have relevant skills or are simply curious and would like to get involved, please get in contact using our contact form.

Keep an eye on this page for project updates!

Many thanks.