Aberfoyle Rectory serves the linked parishes of St. Mary’s, Aberfoyle, and St. Andrew’s, Callander. It is a 1960s four-bed house which until recently, consumed 4,500 litres of oil and 4,000kW of electricity each year, yet never felt very warm. Over the summer of 2020, an interregnum meant that it was the ideal time to undertake substantial work to bring the rectory up to standard, improving heating efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
An EPC had been carried out in 2016, giving an Energy Efficiency Rating of 23 and an Environmental Impact Rating of 21. A second EPC was carried out on 22 Sep 2020, which gave slightly better figures (37 and 32 respectively) but was still far from current standards. After a huge amount of planning, fundraising and implementation, the rectory now has an energy efficiency rating of 93 and an environmental rating of 94, with no recommendations – an excellent result. Read on to hear how this has been achieved and for a full report, please click here.
To move away from burning fossil fuels, a 12kW Vaillant air source heat pump (ASHP) was chosen for the rectory. As one pump was sufficient for the property, planning permission was not required. The heat pump provides central heating water at 45°C and hot water at 55°C (normal shower temperature is approx 38°C). Once a week, the system heats to ~65°C to counter Legionella disease. The firm BRB Electrics were used, as they install heat pumps in council houses and therefore could order all the equipment in bulk.
Another major area of work was improving insulation. It is estimated that without adequate insulation, 42% of household heat is lost through the roof, 24% through the walls and 10% through the floors. Fitting the insulation necessitated further joinery work. Raising the floor led to requiring new doors and door frames. New skirting boards were needed, and new plasterboard and plastering gave the building a new lease of life, together with the associated decoration.
New radiators were required to match the heat pump output. Most rooms were fitted with conventional radiators and some were fitted with Mitsubishi iLife2 Slim ‘Smart’ radiators (N.B. there are a number of similar products on the market, e.g. by Dimplex.) These are computer-controlled fan-assisted radiators which blow warm air across the room and are almost as efficient at dissipating the heat as underfloor heating. Although more expensive than conventional radiators, these are considerably cheaper than underfloor heating. They have the further advantage that they can be switched off, but when switched on will heat a room relatively quickly. For this reason, they have been fitted to the church meeting room, as well as throughout the ground floor.
Throughout this project, a major concern was the price difference between the cost of oil vs. electricity. One way of reducing this cost, was by fitting solar PV panels to the roof of the building. Luckily, the roof faces almost due south, the building is not listed, and is not in a conservation area, and the diocese came to the rescue with a further grant and loan to enable these to be fitted. The solar panels not only drive the heat pump but have a link to the hot water immersion heater. Energy not used by the heat pump or domestic consumption is used to heat the domestic hot water. Anything left over is sold back into the grid at 3p/kWh.
This project was conducted within what turned out to be a very tight budget, and against a very tight time-scale, and at huge upfront expense (£135,000). We were fortunate that the funds were raised for it to go ahead, that it was eligible for an interest-free loan from the Energy Savings Trust, and a Renewable Heat Incentive grant.
Details of the trials, tribulations, and eventual successes of raising this funding are outlined in the full report. It generated considerable argument in Vestry about the wisdom of going ahead with it – causing one resignation – but it was felt that not doing so would mean revisiting it in six- or seven-years’ time, when we would have had the expense of accommodating our Rector elsewhere while the works were carried out. The decoration of the internals ended up being carried out by vestry members, which at least saved some money. What was a rather sad, damp, cold building has been turned into a cosy one fit for a family of four now, and into the future.
Based on a report by Christopher Roads
