East Molesey Methodist Church Reduces its Carbon Footprint with a HeatingSave EMS

East Molesey Methodist Church sits near the south bank of the River Thames in Surrey. A premise consisting of a Victorian church with gallery and a school hall with gallery. There is also a single-storey extension built in the 1970s with three meeting rooms and additional utility rooms. The site uses two boilers on a wet central heating system to provide heating and hot water; one boiler supplying the church and school hall and the other solely for the newer extension.

Following a completed installation of a HeatingSave Building Energy Management System, our reporter caught up with the church's treasurer, Ian Pegg, to discuss and share his experience.

"We knew we had to update the heating system," Ian recalls. "We had three main objectives: ease of management, reduce our carbon profile, and improve the comfort level for our users."

The original boiler controls were basic time clocks that controlled when the heating came on/off. This was essentially a manual system for the church and was time-consuming and tedious to operate. Any change to the heating schedule needed to be manually done to each individual clock.

The HeatingSave BMS system has completely automated the management of the heating system so that it can be run from a PC, laptop or any other device with an Internet connection. "We wanted to reap the benefits sooner rather than later by installing an EMS system ahead of the planned boiler replacement," explained Ian. The HeatingSave set-up at East Molesey Methodist Church has seven different heating zones so that they can granularly manage heating to meet the church's aim of cutting its carbon footprint.

Ian said that he was "very happy with the installation." There were teething problems once the heating season started but they were eventually sorted out. One would normally expect to see an immediate fuel saving and carbon footprint reduction in the first heating season, but as soon as the savings began to be realised the Covid19 pandemic shut down all activities in the church and halls. While services and users have gradually resumed, Ian has no real data to compare his fuel consumption. However, he is expecting to see significant comparative savings this winter.

When asked what made them choose HeatingSave over other companies, Ian said "it was the management system software — others systems did offer this too, but HeatingSave looked easier to us to use and to manage."

When asked about the quality of the HeatingSave Helpdesk Ian remarked "We have used the HeatingSave help desk and they are always very helpful, and were especially supportive when we configured our system." This is an important point for the HeatingSave team as they always want to leave their customers assured they'll always have the support they need.

Happy with his decision to choose HeatingSave, Ian concluded "it all went pretty smoothly and we have even given HeatingSave some customer feedback on how they can improve their system further." The good news for Ian is that HeatingSave are considering his recommendations ready for the winter heating season.

Customer Information

East Molesey Methodist Church Manor Road East Molesey Surry KT8 9JU

Website: emmc.org.uk Email: info@emmc.org.uk

Photo Credit: Hassocks5489