Heating
The current bar heaters around the walls of the church draw 17.5kw and are run for about 5 hours on a Sunday morning. Our new electricity rates are 12.287 cents/kwh. Just for the Sunday morning service, therefore, it costs $10.75 to achieve the current level of warmth (chilly for a Dunedinite on a cold day).
The advice we have received suggests it will take 3 heat pumps at a cost of $4100 each to efficiently heat the space. These heat pumps have an equivalent heat output of 11kw max each (9kw is average). This is an increase in heating of 15.5 kw with the added bonus that they blow the heat around. To achieve this output they have a max input of 2.6kw each giving a total of 7.8kw. It was estimated that it would take about an hour at full output to warm the room up – at which point the units could go to a quieter mode drawing less power. 7.8kw for approx 2 hours at 12.287 cents/kwh equals $1.9. Running at about half power for a further 2 hours is approx another $1.
Per hour use:
Current heating $2.15. Heat pumps (at max usage) 95cents.
It would take about 9100 hours (or 1820 morning services, or about 35) to recap the cost. Economics isn’t the sole consideration, but there is another disadvantage with heat pumps – expectation as to an acceptable level of warmth changes. The ability to crank the thermostat means we can all come to church in winter in singles and sandals. After all, the primary goal is to be warmer than we currently are… no wait… is it?
Installing ceiling fans to keep the heat down would increase the efficiency of whatever heating we have, this is a likely first step.
Could use some help here. Has anyone tried or can you think of any other way to heat an old wooden Anglican Church? I am looking at pellet burners, they seem to be able to put out about 10kw equivalent so we would need at least 2, has anyone tried these?
Facebook comments: