They gathered together on a sunny July evening, between the churchyard’s trees and leaning tombstones, to give thanks for the heat pump. Facing the newly installed system, in its large green metal box, they sang hymns and said prayers. “To thank God, really, for being able to work His wonders in mysterious ways,” says Karen Crowhurst, who is part of a committee that helps to run St. Mary’s Church in Lawford, Essex, in the United Kingdom.
The previous month, a flatbed truck carrying a hefty new heat pump system had eased itself onto the church grounds. By late July, the device was fully installed, and soon followed an outdoor thanksgiving service.
This story was originally published by The Reengineer.
Parts of St. Mary’s date back to the 13th century. In more recent times, the building was heated by a wood chip boiler that had become expensive to run and sometimes clogged up. So now, after more than 800 years, St. Mary’s has gone electric. “We’re all very happy,” says Crowhurst. “We want to get through winter knowing that we’re going to have a nice warm church.”
Dozens of churches in Britain—commonly heated by oil or gas boilers—are currently in the process of installing electric-powered heat pumps as part of eco-minded retrofit projects. Many churchgoers view the schemes as acts of Christian stewardship.
“It’s about caring for other people,” says Kat Jones, from a committee that plans ecofriendly initiatives at the parish church in Milton of Campsie, a village north of Glasgow in Scotland. Many of those currently suffering the worst effects of climate change live in countries that are not responsible for the vast majority of emissions, she explains. Milton of Campsie’s new-build church has triple glazing and an air source heat pump.
And yet, it can be difficult to install heat pumps in older places of worship, which tend to be large, uninsulated buildings.
This, then, is the story of why some churches have opted to take a leap of faith toward this technology—and why it matters to them.