Located in a village just a few miles from Cardiff, Radyr Methodist Church is one of the few places of worship bucking the national trend of declining congregations. Certainly in terms of technology and heating strategy it is preparing for a very positive future, having just removed its legacy heating system and replaced it with Infra-Red panels and bars. The next step is for it to embrace the addition of solar-panels to provide renewable energy for the foreseeable future.
The Challenge
Radyr Methodist Church was facing the challenge of having to replace an inefficient and therefore expensive legacy heating system that used convector heaters in the older parts of the premises, and a gas boiler and radiators in the main areas of worship.
The Installation
The Infra-Red solution was actually recommended by Radyr Methodist Church’s regular electrician, who carried out the entire job, taking out the existing heating infrastructure and installing the entire new system.
Benefits To The Church And Team
Previously in winter the gas heating had to be physically turned on 4 hours prior to a service – so for a 10.30 service, somebody had to turn-up at the church at 6.30 am.
Now the ‘smart’ Infra-Red heating can be turned on 30 minutes before the service using an App on a mobile phone – ‘almost like magic’.
In terms of energy savings the Infra-Red system is saving money on a day-by-day basis. I addition the removal of the boiler has meant that a standing daily charge is no longer payable.
Benefits To The Congregation
Prior to the change members of the congregation had tended to huddle around radiators, keeping their coats on. Since the installation of IR they now happily sit throughout the pews and have been known to take their coats off – even on cold days!
Benefits To The Environment
Infra-Red technology is much more environmentally friendly and ‘sustainable’ than gas. When Radyr Church gets around to installing to solar panels to generate sustainable energy it will be even more so.