As a major Church of unique historical and architectural importance in the county, St James in Louth faces significant challenges to adequately heat and light a building of such grand proportions in these times of rising utility bills. Equally, we take our responsibilities for caring for God’s Kingdom seriously as we continue on our journey to reduce our Carbon emissions in line with the Church of England’s goal to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 2030. When the opportunity to become a Demonstrator Church arose we were enthusiastic to get involved and join the network of Demonstrator Churches. The Churches taking part in this scheme will have different needs and through the process of researching the benefits of installing solar panels, heat pumps, insulation, secondary glazing, LED lighting and infrared heating systems will provide case studies on how best to tackle different challenges which will be shared across the country.

We are currently in the early stages of the project which is being documented. Having already replaced our external and internal lighting to LED and having carried out a heat loss survey we have made a good start to achieving Net Zero Carbon. Our intention now is to focus on establishing the best method of achieving a comfortable ambient temperature for visitors and congregations. With the support of the DAC Net Zero Carbon Officer we have focussed on zones within the building and are currently doing a feasibility study to establish the most appropriate solutions and inform our decision making.

Disseminating our experiences to other Churches is an important element of the project, the St James’s experience will provide support to other churches on their journey, and is available to visit and seek peer-to-peer learning and advice from. Equally we would be pleased to hear from any Churches about to embark on a similar project. Updates will be provided regularly to keep interested parties abreast of progress made.

Jane Fletcher
Churchwarden