Spalding church will have to overhaul heating system as energy prices bite

A vicar expects his church will have to overhaul its heating system to cope with rising energy prices.

The Rev John Bennett, of The Parish Church of Saint Mary and Saint Nicolas in Spalding, says its gas and electricity bills will reach £5,000 by the end of this year.

That is despite its central heating being unused so far in 2022, and it only being used during services and events.

The church, based at The Vista, still uses four boilers first installed in 1985 - and it costs over £100 every time they are turned on due to the size of the building.

In August, the church paid a £100 standing charge despite using no gas.

Mr Bennett said: “At the moment we’re not panicking, but obviously we’re trying to be careful about how we use gas and electricity, because the bills are always big.

“It’s a big old building, and there’s not much we can do in terms of improving the fuel efficiency of a mediaeval church. We’d really like to find an alternative that was more environmentally friendly than gas boilers, but it’s really hard.”

Mr Bennett says ground-based heat source pumps are unviable in a churchyard due to an unwillingness to dig in a graveyard.

He added that air-based pumps are not ideal due to their unappealing aesthetic on the outside of a building.

The church is therefore likely to try to install a more efficient gas boiler at some point during the next 18 months.

“Again, at the moment there isn’t that availability of green hydrogen as a fuel source - so reluctantly, we’re going to have to be looking at upgrading a very ancient gas boiler - or in our case four gas boilers,” Mr Bennett added.

The Spalding church currently operates on a fixed tariff. However, Mr Bennett has voiced concerns that new energy caps may be higher than that current tariff.

He has urged visitors to donate more in line with inflation if they can.