St Laurence Church is a vibrant church and community centre housed in a striking grade-II listed 1968 building. In late 2019, the three large gas boilers that powered the heating for the building, all now over thirty years old, showed signs of failure, and by the Spring, only one had survived the winter.
Valencia Communities Fund was approached to provide funding that would install air source heat pumps to replace the old boilers. However, heat pumps must be fitted to the outside of a building, which was not possible due to the listed status of the church. The pumps had to be installed in the old boiler room and air pulled through into the room from outside. A complex engineering feat, which was eventually overcome.
The new heating was turned on in mid-December. Previous gas boilers generate an estimated 56,000kg CO2 yearly whereas the heat pumps are likely to generate 14,600kg CO2 per year – an annual saving of 41,400kg.
