St Michael's RC Church, Wolverhampton
A modern brick-built church replaced an ageing gas system with four wall-mounted infrared heaters, cutting warm-up time from two hours to five minutes and halving annual heating costs.
- Building
- Post-war brick nave, approximately 400 seats
- Previous system
- Gas convection heaters
- New system
- 4 wall-mounted infrared radiant heaters
- Warm-up time
- 5 minutes (previously 2 hours)
St Michael's is a mid-twentieth-century brick church in Wolverhampton with a high ceiling, large windows and seating for around 400. The building was heated by gas convection heaters that struggled to warm the space, needed to be switched on hours before services, and were expensive to run.
The problem
The gas system took roughly two hours of pre-heating before the congregation arrived, and even then the building felt cold at floor level. Heat rose to the ceiling and stayed there. Running costs were high relative to the short periods the church was actually in use, and the ageing units were becoming unreliable.
The solution
Four infrared radiant heaters were mounted high on the brick walls of the nave, angled downward toward the seating area. Because infrared heats people and surfaces directly rather than warming the air, the system reaches comfortable temperature within five minutes of being switched on.
The heaters run only during services and events. For a church used a few times a week, the reduction in running hours is where the biggest cost saving comes from. The building no longer needs to be pre-heated, and there is no wasted energy heating empty space between services.
Installation
The heaters were fixed to the existing brickwork with minimal disruption. Cabling was routed along the walls. The installation was completed in under a week with no closure of the church.
Outcome
The church reports significantly lower annual heating costs and a warmer, more comfortable experience for the congregation. The silent operation is a marked improvement over the background noise of the old gas units.
Learn more about infrared radiant heating
Warms people and surfaces directly rather than heating the whole air volume, which suits tall, draughty church buildings that were never designed to be heated.
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