A Sheffield Church is benefitting from three new Alpha boilers thanks to a combination of grants and fundraising activity from the congregation.
When the old blown air heating system in the Pitsmoor Methodist Church failed, Church Property Steward, John Eaton, investigated the best solution to deliver heat to the building and invited Alpha installer Dave Oates to see what could be done.
The solution was to install two Alpha CD35C boilers and one 28C boiler to deliver both space heating and hot water for users. Positioning the boilers in separate spaces throughout the Church created zones that could be individually controlled using an EasyStat clock and room thermostat, so instead of heating the whole space, only the boiler operating the occupied area needed to fire up.
John said: “We still had the original heating system from when the building was built in 1972, it heated up the whole building and was expensive to run so when it stopped working I looked into the best alternatives and, knowing Dave and his father through the Church, decided to go with Alpha’s boilers. Veolia Environmental Services gave us £5000 towards the cost of the new system, as the Church is located less than five miles from one of their landfill sites, £2000 was also given by Garfield Weston Foundation and the remainder was raised by our congregation.”
The installation took around three weeks and, due to the concrete floors, all the pipe work had to be surface mounted. However, the difference in heating was instantaneous with users noticing a marked difference in the comfort of the space, stating it delivers a far more gentle heat than the previous system. Whilst their annual heating bill has yet to come through, John fully expects the new system to have reduced the amount they’re spending on gas.
Dave Oates, who installed the system along with this father, added: “We were able to site the boilers in the most convenient locations for access and to be hidden from view by people using the building. As an additional help, Alpha also gave Pitsmoor free flues with the boilers, helping to bring the cost down further.”