St Michael’s Beccles Is The First Church In The Uk To Install Leisure Heating Chandeliers With Combined Heat And Light

The Challenge

For over 600 years the Church of St Michael’s had been a focal point of spiritual life in Beccles but in October 2005 its ancient heating system, installed in the 1860’s, developed a catastrophic fault. Engineers soon realised that the underground pipe work to the system had deteriorated beyond any cost effective repair and that a new system would have to be installed. Various schemes were explored and discounted as they used expensive gas alternatives to the original coke boiler and were noisy and smelly as well as costly to run. These propositions also involved structural alterations which would compromise the architectural beauty of the ancient Church. Furthermore St Michael’s needed to adapt to the needs of today’s smaller congregation which no longer required the whole Church to be heated at all times. Leisure Heating Ltd was approached to design a flexible, instant and cost effective heating system.

The Solution

By installing twelve 9kW ‘Crown’ chandeliers placed at strategic points throughout the church for maximum efficiency, the church now has an infra-red heating system which primarily heats the congregation rather than large volumes of air. Each chandelier carries six 1.5kW short-wave infra-red heaters plus six up lights and six downlights all in keeping with the church’s age and architecture. Leisure Heating chandeliers are individually designed to be attractive and in keeping with the interior of the particular church in which they are installed.

Leisure heating Ltd are proud to have been the first company to have installed this innovative heating technique into a church in Britain.

The Benefits

The use of Leisure Heating chandeliers with combined infra-red heating and low energy lighting has allowed St Michael’s to benefit from a very energy efficient, cost effective system which is relatively simple to install and virtually maintenance free. Furthermore, infra-red heating does not need to be switched on many hours before the congregation arrives.  The instant heat up times of short-wave infra-red means that the system can be energised just before a service begins, thus making a great saving in money and time.

For further information or to discuss your church heating requirements, please contact Leisure Heating Ltd on 0115 937 2727