The location of the boiler room, situated in the church basement, provided an interesting challenge when it came to routing the flues for the four boilers, plus a fifth flue used to vent away radon emissions which occur naturally in the Peak District. The Vaillant flues were powder coated to match the colour of the stone on the exterior of the building to blend unobtrusively with this familiar Buxton landmark. Inside the church, the flues were carefully routed to avoid the organ, so as not to disrupt the worship life of the church.

Initially, the church was undecided how to approach the project, as each installer who quoted for the project recommended a different approach, and several church members had asked about the possibility of using weather compensation controls. As almost all the possible installers had recommended Vaillant products, Property Steward Michael Bryant contacted the heating manufacturer to ask for some advice. He explained, “It was difficult to know what to do for the best, until John Bailey at Vaillant kindly designed an excellent system, with an entire manual of everything we needed, including controls. That made it possible to obtain like for like quotes so that we knew we were getting the best value as well as expertise. This was a great help as I was feeling out of my depth until Vaillant intervened.”

Control for the zoned heating plant is provided by a Vaillant VRC630/boiler management system, which manages the ecoTEC boilers in cascade. This allows the church to utilise Vaillant’s weather compensation technology with boiler sequence control, and optimum heating start and stop. The church not only holds worship services and mid week meetings; but also reaches out to its local community through a twice weekly café. In addition the church itself can be hired for concerts and public meetings, as well as weddings; and the main hall and additional meeting rooms are often hired for other purposes.

At the rear of the church is a two-storey former Victorian day school building, and behind that a 1930s extension with Sunday school classrooms and a toilet block. Efficient control of individual heating zones is essential for energy efficiency when providing comfort heating. Since the new system was installed, church members have reported feeling comfortably warm, without feeling either too cold or too hot.

As Property Steward, Michael Bryant supervised the installation as part of a drive to increase energy efficiency in heating and lighting and reduce the church’s contribution to climate change. He continued, “The church has been heated by a series of coal, oil and gas boilers over the years since the 1800s, with combustion air drawn from the space below the church. Some of that air was re-circulated into the church, along with some radon, by the organ blower. We had thought that we would need to relocate the boiler room to site individual boilers in different zones throughout the building complex, but that would have entailed piping gas all around the church. We’ve now improved our ventilation and our energy efficiency, and the new central heating system has also allowed us to meet Gas Safe regulations. Bills so far have been very reasonably and we’re looking forward to more savings in the future.”

For more information about Vaillant, telephone 01634 292300 or visit the website at www.vaillant.co.uk.