Lights out for efficiency

South Molton Methodist Church took a big step in making their facilities more energy efficient recently, thanks to a cash award from Western Power Distribution’s Community Chest Scheme.

WPD set aside £50,000 for this scheme and encouraged community trusts and hall committees to apply for a grant that would enable them to take simple but effective energy saving measures for the buildings they use for community events and weekly groups.

Derek Summers, a member of the South Molton Methodist Church Property Committee explains: “Over the past couple of years we have slowly been refurbishing the building. We have updated the kitchen and the main hall and this year we want to refurbish the Ladies and Gents Toilet facilities.

Sadly the toilets have no natural lighting and we found that lights were being left on during the day but sometimes overnight too. We wanted to improve this lighting with some energy efficient lighting that would work on an automatic PIR sensor.”

The grant scheme was managed by the Centre for Sustainable Energy who assessed every application checking eligibility criteria. Anna Watts, Project Coordinator explains: “We have had a huge response from communities wanting to reduce their energy costs. Taking simple measures like installing cavity wall insulation and sensor lighting should be the bread and butter for any carbon saving scheme.

This scheme is welcomed by communities who struggle to fund these basic but essential improvements.”
Derek added: “We are delighted to have been awarded the funding to complete this work. The church hall is used daily so we hope to see some significant savings on our energy bills over the coming months.”