Halo Heating St Michael’s Church

Background

This case study shares feedback on the Herschel Halo heating St Michael’s Church, and includes a video testimonial from Andrew Bellamy, churchwarden. St Michael’s Church is a beautiful Grade 1 listed church, located in the historic village of Aynho, UK, and dates back to the 14th Century since the reign of Edward III.

With the Church of England objective in mind, to meet the net zero emissions target by 2030, St Michael’s was in need of a new church heating system as the existing boiler was coming to the end of its life.  St Michael’s started to look at plans for air source heat pumps however they sought alternatives as a result of the costs involved. We speak with Andrew on how the Church, and its congregation, has found its new Halo heating system. Andrew’s full video testimonial on Halo heating St Michael’s is below.

Flexible Control

Following talks with the Herschel Heritage team to understand the requirements of St Michael’s Church, six Halo (7.8kW) heaters were installed. The Halo heaters are installed in three pairs, with control over each pair of heaters, to allow heating of the congregation at the front, the middle and the rear. Simple switches are in place, with touch button controls, to facilitate three stages of heat; low, medium and high.

Comfort Levels

Andrew outlines that the church “is very pleased with the outcome. The feeling of warmth in the church is simply marvellous. We are simply delighted with them. If you look at the Halo heaters themselves, they seem to look as if they’ve been here forever. They are a much more fitting chandelier system than we had in here before, which we’d had for nearly 150 years. And people come into the church and they literally go, wow, they look fantastic. And after they’ve been here for a short time in the service, they love the actual warmth, the warmth, which the Halo heaters give is better than we had thought. We knew that they would heat people in the congregation, give them a level of warmth which they probably never had in the church before, but we’re pleasantly surprised that the side effects of heating the fabric of the church during the services and the other periods where we’ve had them on, has been very, very good. So, pew cushions, for example, which could go cold and slightly damp feel warm to the touch, and therefore it’s better for the fabric of those, the curtains on the sides of the church equally pick up some of the warmth and generally the building feels better than it did before we put in the halo system”.

Warm-Up Times

As well as the aesthetic benefits and the improved feeling of comfort, Andrew also outlines the efficiency with which the desired temperatures are achieved.

“The old system used to take us four or five days to heat the church to 16 or 17 degrees, which was the absolute maximum we could ever get to. And the boiler worked for 24 hours a day for those four or five days until we reached this temperature. It was a real trial for the church warden, for the vergers coming in here to turn the heating on, to monitor it, to check that it was still working. And all those issues to do with managing the heating system have now gone. We literally walk into the church as we’re setting it up for the congregation to arrive and half an hour before we flick the switch and on come the heaters and within half an hour every part of the church is registering 17 or 18 degrees of temperature, which is excellent”.

 Bespoke Designs

The Halo heater has the option for bespoke decorative finishes, tailored to designs chosen by each church. The Halo heating St Michael’s incorporates a bespoke finish that has been designed to match the church baptismal font. Beautifully finished, the motif on the Halos creates a stunning and complementary addition to the heating system.

The Halo heating technology delivers a more affordable, practical alternative to heat pumps whilst achieving fantastic results in comfort and energy consumption. Our Heritage Team will work with you to understand your requirements and tailor an infrared heating solution accordingly.

Andrew outlines their experience, “Dealing with Herschel as a company was excellent….. a project team came to the church and assessed the number of heaters and the size of the heaters that we would want. It was a very straightforward process”.

Contact the Herschel Heritage Team today for a consultation and experience the future of church heating for yourself.