Church of St Philip and St James, Norton St Philip

Background

Herschel was approached by St Philip and St James Church as it was looking for a new heating system to replace the old Victorian gas radiators they had running down both sides of the church. The previous gas system was ineffective at keeping the congregation warm, inefficient and expensive to run and took up valuable space. The Church had taken the decision to remove the pews, and lost a number of radiators in the process, adding them back in would have spoiled the space. The church was also very conscious of the environmental impact of their heating and wanted an eco heating solution that was run off electricity and not gas, in line with The Church of England’s 2030 net-zero objectives. The church has very high ceilings, making it difficult to keep warm using their previous system, so after reading about Herschel Infrared on our website and researching heating in other churches, Reverend Caroline Walker got into contact with us for a site visit and specification.

We visited St Philip and St James Church to discuss the installation of their Herschel Infrared Power heaters. Watch the full testimonial below:

Solution

This particular church had multiple areas that needed specifying all with different heating requirements, depending on the main usage of the spaces. The following heaters were specified:

Main Nave – 10 x Manhattan 3000W (Remote Controlled)
Hospitality Area – 3 x Manhattan 3000W (Remote Controlled)
Chancel – 2 x Manhattan 3000W (Remote Controlled)
South Aisle – 4 x Manhattan 3000W (Remote Controlled)
Side Chapel – 2 x Colorado 2500W (Remote Controlled)
Meeting Room – 2 x Summit 2600W (Controlled by MD2 Hard Wired Thermostat)

Norton St Philip Interior

3kW Manhattan heaters were specified for the bigger areas with high ceilings, these heaters were mounted at a substantial height, allowing heat to spread effectively throughout the area and gently warming the room from a zero glare, pleasant glow. They also have two power settings and a 24 hour timer, ensuring flexible control for the church in achieving the desired temperatures. The Church have said that the heaters are less visually and spatially intrusive than the radiators.

Norton St Philip Manhattan

2.5kW Colorado heaters were specified for the smaller lady-chapel and mounted at lower heights. The Colorado has four power settings, again making them highly controllable and allowing a variety of levels of warmth, including instant heat for short prayer meetings.

Zero-light Summit heaters were specified for the meeting room upstairs, this room had a particularly low ceiling, so a zero-light option provided a powerful solution without distracting from the on-going meetings.

Testimonial

We have them on full heat but that gives us the instant we need for a short prayer meeting and that works really well

"We needed to be warmer and we also wanted to be considering the eco side of things going forward, so we were looking at installing something that was run off electricity, rather than using gas, and having more instant heat rather than having to raise the temperature of the whole building for hours and hours and hours - hopefully we've achieved that. We can switch on and off every individual heater and also tone them down. The main ones in the nave have two settings. I actually did a funeral the other day and someone said they were too hot so I was able to turn the heaters in the nave down so they were just on the first setting. In our lady-chapel we have some smaller heaters that run on four settings. We have them on full heat but that gives us the instant we need for a short prayer meeting and that works really well."

Reverend Caroline Walker