Thaxted Church, Thaxted

A church dating back to the 14th century is fully prepared for the colder months, with the installation of three Potterton Commercial Sirius boilers and 30 new radiators. Crucially, the heating system upgrade was completed without encroaching on the character or feel of the Grade One listed church.

Thaxted Church is a beautiful, large building, but unfortunately its congregation had started to dwindle due to its ineffective heating system. The church was often left with an ambient temperature of only 8°C in summer and as low as 4-6°C in winter.

The main challenge for the installers, Christopher Dunphy Ecclesiastical Limited, was to design a system that did not have an adverse impact on the interior of this listed building, and ultimately provided an effective source of heat.

The original boiler room at the church was actually underground, meaning an 80 metre gas line was required to effectively create a new boiler room above ground, in the main church. Understandably, to preserve the character of the listed building, the church did not want the boilers to be visible.

Both Potterton Commercial and Christopher Dunphy Ecclesiastical Limited worked closely with the local diocese architect to ensure the system was carefully planned and approved, and impressively completed the project in only six weeks from the very first site visit. The project team specified three 110kW Sirius WH boilers, 30 new radiators, which were strategically placed around the building, and additional under-pew heaters for extra comfort and warmth. A ‘Spirotech’ controller was also installed to allow centralised control.

Utilising its experience in the design church heating installations, Christopher Dunphy Ecclesiastical Limited, interestingly chose to locate the new boilers in the Vestry in the centre of the church. As Potterton Commercial’s Sirius boilers are so compact, they could be completely concealed within the vestry by using WH (wall hung) cascade frames.

Mick Russell from Christopher Dunphy Ecclesiastical Limited explains: “Potterton Commercial is our first choice for church projects, largely due to the reliability, excellent back-up service & on-site specification we receive from the team. They came out and did a thorough site visit before specifying the perfect solution for the church.”

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