From Dr Christopher Rigg
Sir, - Everyone can agree with the cris de coeur in
your letters (
13 and
20 February) about the problems of cold churches.
A committee from the churches of Bennekom village with
considerable expertise from the agricultural research centre of
Wageningen looked at the problems and published a fairly technical
book in 2011, Duurzame Kerkverwarming (Sustainable Heating
of Churches), which was presented to the Protestant Church in the
Netherlands as a general manual on environmental-friendly church
heating.
The authors made use of a more popular account by W. Bordass and
C. Bemrose, Heating Your Church (Church House Publishing,
1996), which they recommend.
As general advice for both rural and urban churches, windows are
the part of most churches which loses the most heat, creating
down-draughts and perhaps even doubling the heating bill. You don't
need double glazing as a remedy: Plexiglass is much cheaper, and
serves also to prevent damage by stones or other missiles to costly
stained glass.
CHRISTOPHER RIGG
Langhoven 57, 6721 SL Bennekom
The Netherlands