Small team of volunteers help Rugby church lower carbon emissions

08/10/2024

The journey to becoming net zero carbon can seem like a daunting, overwhelming goal at first — yet the incredible, eco-focused transformation of St George’s Church in Rugby proves that a small motivated team can make a big difference.
Man stands outside church building

“We did this because it’s the right thing for the environment,” shares Phil Hemsley, Church Warden at St George’s Church and a passionate force behind the church’s adoption of solar panels, air to air heat pumps, insulation and LED lighting, all installed with the church’s future carbon footprint firmly in mind.  

He continued: “The journey as a community began when the Diocese of Coventry arranged for a free energy audit to be carried out in our church. It began as a technical review of what the church could do, and that led to looking into the wider issues of climate change and CO2 emissions.”  

Phil describes that they quickly realised the small role they were playing in climate change through the inefficiencies that existed within their buildings: “It plunged me into a state of ‘climate anxiety’ for a while — that motivated me to explore positive changes that we could make together.”

A building at the heart of the community

Built in the 1960s, St George’s is a vibrant and inclusive church that forms part of the Rugby East Benefice. The church promotes an active schedule of Christian services and events for the parish, and prides itself on being central to the local community — the church hall is regularly used for preschool meetings as well as by local yoga groups, a male voice choir, and for hosting coffee mornings and hiring out for children’s parties.  

High energy bills were an unfortunate but, it seemed, unavoidable consequence of being such a well-loved and frequently-used space by local people.

“We really connect with the local community; a lot of people access the hall and make great use of it,” says Phil, “and we realised that we needed to make some changes to protect the church building’s future.”

How the project was funded

The church applied successfully for a £23,000 grant from the Warwickshire County Council Green Shoots scheme. This grant, along with a £5,000 grant from the Diocese of Coventry enabled them to buy solar panels which cost £28,000.

To fund the installation of air to air heat pumps, costing £27,000, they secured community project funding from two different County Council districts, as well as a grant from the diocese and a small grant from the Benefact Trust. A kind donation from a member of the parish covered the cost of the new lighting throughout the hall, which cost £1,000 to install.

Phil added: “Not all of our funding came quite so easily. We also held an environment day, which was quite a big event for us to encourage local people to contribute to our heat pump funds. Unbeknownst to us, that event unfortunately clashed with the England Women’s World Cup final, so it wasn’t a huge success — but it’s all been part of the learning journey!”

Measuring the impact

St George’s Church took a significant step forward on the path to becoming net zero carbon with the installation of solar panels across its roof in 2022. The panels now generate 26,000 kWh of renewable energy annually, and crucially provide all of the energy that is needed to heat the church hall and the church during the winter months.  

Projected to save over 8 tonnes of CO2 every year, from a financial standpoint, the net saving to the church is around £5,000 per year — significantly bolstering the church’s funds.

“The savings from the solar panels have been phenomenal, and they are an easy fix when it comes to installation,” reflects Phil.

Air to air heat pumps, which work like air conditioning units, were the next big challenge for St George’s: “Installing solar panels was a straight-forward process, but with heating, it is a much bigger conversation. You have to consider how you’re going to heat the building, what sort of heating you’re going to use, how it will be installed, whether it is going to be comfortable and if it will be noisy. We discovered air to air heat pumps were extremely efficient and very low cost, and it quickly became clear to us that this was the right solution for our church. We used a thermodynamic model to predict the behavior of the building; this demonstrated and quantified the benefits that we would receive should we go ahead with the installation. 

“It posed an interesting technical challenge, but the main concerns for our congregation, understandably, were the impact that a new heating system would have: would it be disruptive and would it make for a more comfortable environment? We went to two other churches nearby that had air to air heat pumps installed, and the Diocese Heating Advisor also came to talk to us about it all. We had to bring the community on the journey along with us.”

Looking to the future

The net zero journey of St George’s has also included the replacement of 96 18W fluorescent bulbs with 9W LED alternatives throughout the building, and the installation of additional insulation to the kitchen ceiling and walls for an additional carbon saving of 0.6 tonnes annually.

The congregation at St George’s have been delighted with the results: “We’ve received lots of positive comments about the temperature and the quietness of the heating units,” shares Phil. “We are not finished: there are other small changes that we know we can make in the future to gain extra savings. We have a little meeting room with two gas heaters in it, and a bungalow with a gas boiler, both used for perhaps two hours a week.  We are looking to replace the gas heaters with air to air heat pumps soon.  There is definitely more that we could do, if funding opened up to us in the future.”

St George’s in Rugby shines brightly as an example of what can be achieved when tackling climate change becomes a key mission of the church community.

“We started with little knowledge,” reflects Phil, “but we soon learnt a great deal about the different sorts of heating options available to us, about how to model the building’s behaviour and explored where funding may come from and the processes behind applying for it. There was a steep learning curve, but we knew change was possible. We hope that others can be encouraged by our achievements, and we are happy to share our experience.” 

Top tips

  • Find a ‘champion’ or a small team who can take the project forward; someone needs to own it. 

  • Talk to others who have experienced the journey. There is a lot of misinformation around, and it’s easy to get confused. 

  • Measure what your existing heating system does by using a temperature logger to give you a starting point in terms of what temperature you need and how much you might save. 

  • Focus on finding the right solution, you may find it can be adapted to suit your needs and at the same time be cost effective.

  • Every journey starts with a first step – take it! 

Environment
Net zero carbon