Last year, St Saviours, Iford took part in the Give To Go Green matched funding campaign. Below is their summary of the grant:
Having been successful in our application for match funding on Give to go Green, in mid 2024, St Saviours began the fundraising to achieve match funding from the diocese
We had taken on board the Church of England’s intention to go Net Zero by 2030 and we had two potential ambitions one was to reduce our electricity usage which was not inconsiderable, or our gas usage which was eyewatering. The decision based on costs of implementation alone were to change ALL (or as much as possible) of our lighting to LED.
This decision was driven by cost of work. We obtained four estimates for the work we required doing, split into separate pricing for: The main Church, The Church hall both upstairs and downstairs, The ‘link and offices’ then corridors and toilets. The intention being to give us an idea of what we needed to achieve in fundraising.
Prices were incredibly varied and in truth scared us, just a little. However, we found a relatively new company well qualified, with tremendous references and he became our ‘target’ for fund raising.
The congregation rose to the challenge embracing the plans we had and understanding the need we had, and the benefit going forward of seriously reduced electricity bills, plus of course being way more environmentally friendly.
We held quiz nights, music appreciation events, spring fairs, bring and buy sales, jigsaw puzzle sales, coffee mornings to name a few. The result was a total raised by the church in a little over 5 months to over £5000, with match funding we had a budget of something over £10,000. This allowed us to commence work in late December of 2024.
We started with the hall replacing all of the lights, on both floors, with exact replacements of existing light units with the equivalent LED lights. This meant no disruption or redecoration required; units were identical in size and format. This work took place between Christmas and New Year and was completed in a day and a half. The resulting lighting was seriously impressive it was so much brighter, cleaner and in truth, on most occasions, we don’t need to use all of the lights now.
The Church was a much bigger operation as the roof height is over 5 metres and there are a huge number of lights, uplights, font lights, music group, altar etc etc. It was decided to do the work over 5 days beginning on a Monday, having installed the scaffold tower insitu the week before. The two electricians began work promptly on the Monday morning; having had all of the lighting delivered to the Church on the preceding Friday. Work proceeded smoothly with no major complications. All switches were replaced; some being two way and some being three way. It now allows us to activate the lights from several different positions in the Church which is incredibly useful. Once again, the difference in the light output is astounding.
Now the major benefit that we have achieved, in the almost a year, since we started this journey; has been a drop in our electricity bill of over 50%. As an example, the Church lighting alone was over 6 kw per hour and is now less than 500 watts per hour.
Having achieved the Hall and Church light changes we have, with remaining funds now completed the ‘Link’ the corridor between the Church and the link; some of the toilets, office lights and some corridor lights. Our final funds are going to be used on the other corridors the remaining toilets. And if possible, the storage cupboards which have fluorescent tubes currently.
Our next ambition, going forward, and bearing in mind the Net Zero target is to install solar panels, inverter and batteries to make us self-sufficient, as much as we can, on electrical requirements.
