Marown Parish Church (Diocese of Sodor and Man) have been successfully piloting a new approach to heating; rechargable heated cushions.
When considering where they could cut down the church's environmental impacts, the parish realised that heating such a large building was responsible for a significant part of their carbon footprint, and costing them a lot in oil every year.
Following on from this, it was decided that the principle of heating people, rather than space, should be followed.
They agreed to try a pilot of heated cushions, because of the speed and ease with which they could be trialled. The cushions themselves are rechargable, so no permanent cabling is required, and the electricity is bought from renewable sources, making them a net zero carbon option.
This page contains a short format video, a written case study, two longer videos and a section with faith-based discussion questions.
Read the Case Study below.
What was done?
This case study has generated a large number of enquiries. To help answer these, the project manager of the pilot has created a technical guidance note and accompanying YouTube video, covering the specs of the equipment installed, pros/cons, costs, and important aspects such as safe battery storage.
Please do refer to this helpful resources, to see if they answer your questions, before contacting Marown Parish Church directly.
Why we acted
Discussion Questions for "Why we acted"
Genesis 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
In this video, people are sharing the motivation which led them to get involved with this environmental project. They share lots of ideas, prayers and hopes which you might like to discuss. Here are a few questions to help you think, but you might like to start your discussions by talking about the parts of the video that stood out most to you. This video is part of a set of videos, and there are some common themes across them all, particularly around ‘stewardship’ and caring for creation, and around justice for people in poor countries or for future generations. So other videos might include some interesting questions which relate to this video too. Feel free to explore them all!
- Janice reminds us that God’s gift of creation is ‘very good’, given to us so we can enjoy it. How will you enjoy creation today or this week? Do you think enjoying creation changes your attitude to looking after it?
- Trialling heated cushions is just one small step in the journey for Marown Parish Church. What small step will you take to tread more lightly on the earth?