All the reasons it might be sensible for you to think about changing the heating in your church to Infra-Red.
There are many reasons for thinking it may be time to revisit the heating strategy in your place of worship. If you’re wondering, start by asking yourself these questions:
Q1: Does my church generally feel cold, and do the congregation feel it?
A1: Given that many churches are old and poorly insulated buildings they are not easy to heat effectively with legacy heating systems.
If your church feels cold, and your congregation are suffering, changing to Infra-Red heating may be the perfect solution.
Q2: Why does it take so long for my church to heat up?
A2: Many churches were built with high ceilings to inspire awe and enable a sense of the divine due to the ability to ‘look up towards the heavens’. In terms of emotion and aesthetics this can be truly inspirational as part of the act of worship. However, if you have traditional heating, the warmth has to rise and fill all those high spaces in the rafters before it circulates down to congregation level.
In contrast Infra-Red radiation directly heats people in line-of-site. That means the congregation warm up quickly.
Q3: Why is my heating bill is so high?
A3: This is almost certainly because you are, knowingly or unknowingly, wasting warmth by heating empty spaces. For the most part this relates to Q2.
One of the benefits of Infra-Red is that it allows you to heat spaces in your church zonally – in effect you only need to heat the bits you are using rather than the whole lot.
Q4: What should I do if I need to replace my existing boiler
A4: Many legacy heating systems are driven by gas boilers that are approaching, or past, their ‘sell-by dates’. Given that the gas boiler ban that pushes the UK towards net zero doesn’t come into effect until 2035 you are quite entitled to replace your boiler any time up until then.
Having said that most forward-looking churches are considering new and more efficient strategies for when their boiler ‘expires’, and Infra-Red is an obvious contender.
Q5: How can I make my church more environmentally friendly?
A5: Over time, with the elimination of gas boilers by 2035, all UK buildings will, de facto, eventually become more environmentally friendly.
However the adoption of Infra-Red heating, especially if your church has the ability to combine it with solar panelling (Phot-Voltaic cells) will speed-up the process significantly.
Q6: How can I keep my organist warm in winter?
A6: If you’ve got a particular cold spot in your church all you need is a plug-and-play Infra-Red moveable heater. Simples, it
beams the heat straight at them instantly.
Q7: Why isn’t a heat pump suitable for heating my church?
A7: Good question. The Government are pushing heat pumps as the solution for boiler replacement but they only sensibly work in buildings that have ‘regulation shape’ rooms and are well insulated. It’s next to impossible to manage heating in a space like a church with heat pump technology.
Q8: How can I keep my Sunday School children toasty?
A8: Typically a Sunday School only occupies a small and discrete part of the church – zonal heating is very much Infra-Red’s sweet spot. You can either install panels on the wall or use mobile panels. Better still you can design image panels that illustrate parables and other stories.
Best of all you only need to turn the heating on for the short period of time that Sunday School runs – you can keep the kids toasty when they need to be then turn off the heat the minute they leave.
Q9: What can I do when my church hall hirers complain about being cold?
A9: Keeping your church hall warm for peripatetic occasional or regular hirers can be a challenge. Do you leave the heating on all the time? Or do you try and heat the hall tactically?
Essentially you want to heat the hall when the people are there and turn off the heating when they’re not. With legacy heating that’s all but impossible. With Infra-Red it’ totally practical. Your hirers stay happy, and you save money on your heating bills.
Q10: Who can help me with all the above?
A10: Basically you need an Infra-Red heating expert who understands churches and associated church buildings, who can present you with a cost-effective strategy that can be operated and programmed through an App, who also provide a full installation service.
That’s exactly where we come in., We are the UK’s specialist Infra-Red heating partner for all places of worship.