Operation Thermostat
Like many churches, Belmont UMC has found itself in a common scenario. We are managing our operating and mission budgets in an environment where net worth is dropping and expenses climbing. The Finance Committee approached the Green Team to see if we could assess the energy usage. We were asked to make recommendations where the church could save money while being better stewards of God’s creation.
After analyzing two years of power bills, we determined the majority of the summer electric bills are due to cooling the church. Our lighting is mostly fluorescents and the staff does a good job of keeping the lights off when not in use. Like many churches with older buildings, our HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) system is a conglomerate of different systems, some new, some old, kept running by our resident HVAC master, Lennie Minter. We saw that all the thermostats in the church were manual. Meaning if you wanted to change in temperature, someone has to change it. This also means the thermostats will cool at the current temperature, 24 x 7, until someone changes it. Many of the thermostats were set to 72 degrees or lower, running all day.
We suggested installing programmable thermostats. Programmable thermostats are electric thermostats that can be programmed to change temperatures on a schedule. The main goal is to reduce the amount of energy being used to cool the church during off hours.
There were several challenges to accomplishing the goal. The existing system is complicated, some of it quite old, some of it new. We’d have to purchase of the thermostats. We counted twenty four manual thermostats in uses. The thermostats would have to be installed. Finally, we need to have buy-in from staff and congregation. If the thermostats are not programmed, monitored and used correctly, it will produce no results.
With the blessing of the Finance and Properties committees, we began investigating how to begin. We contacted Sid Taylor, who works for Honeywell. Sid recommended a few models and said he could donate the thermostats. This is an amazing contribution. Things were looking up. We contacted Lennie Minter, our distinguished Property Manager. We asked Lennie who we should we call to get a quote for installation. Lennie said, “us”. We realized there are many people in the church who have installed programmable thermostats in their homes. With Lennie’s guidance, we could install the thermostats ourselves. So now, we had the thermostats donated and the labor would be free.
The installation has begun. We are about 40% complete. There have been some setbacks. Some of the older units require thermostats on higher wattage. Some of the units have industrial grade controllers that can’t be replaced. They all appear to be wired a little differently. But, we are replacing the ones we can. There were a few programmable thermostats already in place. These only required slight adjustments to their programs.
The Green Team was invited to a church staff meeting. We received a warm welcome. Our leader, Gary Hawkins illustrated the potential savings by not cooling the church during off hours. He refers to these savings as “mining dollars” from the existing processes. This is money we are currently spending that could be used for ministry, instead of cooling the 3rd floor at 72 degrees at 3am.
The final step, as the installation is being completed, is support from the congregation. We want to continue to provide a space that is inviting and comfortable for worship, ministry and community meetings. There are some areas of the church that are being over cooled. NES (Nashville Electric Service) indicates a possible 5% savings/cost per degree (http://www.nespower.com/energy_saving_tips.aspx). This should make us conscious when raising or lowering the temperature. The new thermostats will need some adjustments. We ask for your comments and flexibility as we learn the best settings throughout the weeks.
A few suggestions have been offered. Be sure to turn off lights if you’re the last one leaving the room. Take advantage of natural light. We have a habit of instantly turning on the light when we walk in a room. Depending on the time of day, you may have plenty of natural light. You may can turn off one, two or all the lights. Give it a try. One more suggestion is to schedule meetings to meet in adjacent rooms, particularly in the evening. This could reduce the different areas of the church that need to be cooled.
Some final notes. This process is only for the air conditioning. Our heater is a furnace steam system that operates independently of the cooling system. The thermostats do not affect how the air flows in the church. There are some rooms that are cooler than others due to the length and angles of the ducts.
I’m not one to claim I know what God is up to, but it sure feels like God has had a hand in this process. We hope the outcome will be to reduce the amount of energy used when the church is not being used, be conscious of the energy being used when we are present and to continue to offer a comfortable and inviting space for worship, planning and community.
--Ned Henry
