THE congregation of St Boniface’s, Whipton, in Exeter, is feeling the benefit of a new underfloor heating system, which has been designed to maintain a steady temperature throughout the winter and to support the Church of England’s target to reduce emissions to net zero by 2030.
The 1950s building, which serves as a community hub throughout the week, originally had underfloor heating and has since had solar panels installed. Its failing boiler had struggled for two years to make an impact on the space, however, and any replacement would have had to be fossil fuel-free.
Four air-source heat pumps supply the system with warm water, taking electricity from the solar panels. A pioneering technique that eliminated the need to dig up and rebuild the entire floor was used to lay the 400m² of heating pipes. The system aims to heat only the first 3m of air, to avoid heat vanishing into high roof voids.
St Boniface’s, WhiptonChannels of pipe work for the underfloor heating are installed
The whole project has cost in the region of £180,000. The biggest component has come from a Stage 2 capital grant from the C of E’s Net Zero Carbon Programme. Funding also came from the Garfield Weston Foundation, and £30,000 was raised by the church itself.
“It’s a delightfully simple system,” the Priest-in-Charge, the Revd Carl Robinson, said on Monday. “It maintains its temperature and can be on low and slow now for the next four months, right through the winter, without any intervention.
“We’d been trying our best to manage the system as it was and not to spend an eye- watering amount of money on heating, as most churches do. The proof will be in the pudding — we’ll have to run it for a year and how it compares — but we’re hoping we can save a bit of money and employ a youth worker. For the moment, we’re just so happy to be back in.”
The “amazing” congregation had given sacrificially, he said. “One thing we did was a GoFund me [appeal] which we sent out to friends all over the country to pass on, to get us up and running to develop the project. It’s been really good.”
Mr Robinson praised the local contractors and the quality of the work. In January, as a demonstrator church, it will be putting on an open day for churches and dioceses that may wish to go down the same route.