Stockton's Eco-Friendly Building
Our Environmental Objectives:
- We set out to minimise the environmental impact of demolition and construction.
- From the outset our specifications for the new building were designed to minimise its environmental impact throughout its life, within the constraints of a tight budget.
Why Go 'Green':
- Many people believe that 'greenhouse' gases produced by human activity are causing accelerated global warming and potentially catastrophic damage to the Earth's climate.
- The world economy is heavily dependent on energy, mostly from fossil fuels, and other finite natural resources which are limited, and fast being used up.
- Most forms of energy generation and use of other resources cause potentially harmful emissions into the atmosphere as well as 'greenhouse' gases.
Any of the above provides compelling reasons why we should all strive to minimise the environmental impact of our activities wherever we can
Key 'Green' Features of the Project:
- Bringing to an end our use of a large and thermally very inefficient building.
- Hard work by church members to ensure that as much as possible of the internal materials were recycled.
- Best current thermal insulation standards specified for the new building.
- Building has been designed to minimise resource consumption - gas, electricity and water.
- We specified that the new building should have its own capability to generate renewable energy - photo-voltaic tiles in the roof and a wind generator.
Design Features of the New Building:
- Good insulation specifications - under floor, cavity walls and ceilings.
- Double glazed using 'k glass' giving equivalent of triple glazing thermal performance.
- Building construction designed to minimise draughts.
- Efficient condensing gas boiler for central heating with thermostatic radiator valves.
- Low energy light bulbs specified throughout.
- Water saving 'percussion' type taps fitted to wash basins.
- Dual flush water saving toilets fitted.
- Super-efficient hot water storage tanks.
- Photo-voltaic tiles built into roof capable of generating up to 1.92 kW.
- Provision for a wind turbine to be fitted to the south gable end, subject to planning permission, to generate up to 1.25 kW.
How Much Electricity Can We Generate?
- The PV tiles can generate up to a maximum of 1.92 kW.
- The actual output depends on the amount of sunshine and daylight hours in any given period.
- At 10.50 am on 30th March 2007 our solar roof was connected and started generating immediately.
- In the first year to 31st March 2008 we generated 1,347 kWh (units), around 60% of our annual electricity consumption.
- Our solar panels have continued to perform well to the present time, generating between 1,250 and 1,350 kWh (units)per annum, most of which has been exported to the local network.
- We passed a significant milestone on 3rd August 2014 when the total generated exceeded 10 megawatt hours (10,000 units), enough to supply a typical household for 4 to 5 years.
- Look at the meter below to check the grand total of units produced to date.
- Regrettably, our plans to install additional generating capacity in the form of a domestic wind turbine were halted for the time being by the demise of the manufacturer, Windsave.
The Battle to 'Go Green':
Despite international concern about global warming we have found that 'going green' has not been easy!
We have had to push hard to get environmental features incorporated which go beyond 'run of the mill' building practices.
Navigating through the bureaucratic quagmire to get 'Clear Skies' grants for the PV tiles and wind turbine has been a nightmare.
Installation of the wind turbine was delayed by difficulties getting planning permission. Meanwhile our turbine supplier, Windsave, went into administration. We are continuing to research suitable alternatives so that we can complete this part of the project.
Perhaps the biggest problem we encountered was that, in order to get the new building connected to the grid system we had to agree to a long term contract with the company which supplied our previous building. However they insisted on treating the church as a business and refused to purchase any electricity that we produced! Consequently we received no payment for the first 3085 units (kWh) of electricity that we produced. It was not until this contract ended that we were able to switch, with effect from 14th June 2009, to a new supplier - Ecotricity - prepared to pay us for every unit of electricity that we generate.
We were delighted when the last Government finally introduced a "Feed-In Tariff" system (for which we had campaigned) only to find that PV equipment commissioned before 15th July 2009 would only be entitled to receive 9p per unit compared with at least 34p per unit for new installations. We feel that we have been penalised unfairly for being pioneers. Commendably, until recently Ecotricity paid a higher rate of 16p per unit from April 2010, compared with the 9p minimum rate they were obliged to pay by the regulations. However, this has now fallen back to the current standard rate for older systems of around 11p per unit.
The final twist to this saga concerns the 2010 General Election. During the campaign Mr Cameron, who later became Prime Minister, made a firm commitment if elected to extend the higher Feed-in Tariff rates to all 'existing' systems as well. Subsequently the then Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, announced that this promise would not be honoured!