Help this New England Church Become More Efficient

by Susanna, PF Web Maven | 11:23 am January 6th, 2012 | 13 Comments »

Recently, a Planet Forward member emailed me to ask how her church should become more energy efficient, especially considering their tight budget. They were inspired by the Solar Decathlon and all the ideas those young people were able to bring to a single family home–but will those ideas work for a working congregation? I decided to open up the question to you, the Planet Forward community. Please weigh in!

Dear Planet Forward Expert:

St. James Episcopal Church in North Salem, New York is interested in renovating its Parish Hall, a house-sized, 18th century, two story structure. The Parish Hall currently houses a nursery school and is used for a variety of Church and community events. It has a large commercial kitchen and also serves as office space for the Rector and administrative staff. It is hugely energy inefficient — our heating oil bills are astronomical.

The Church would like to replace the existing structure with an innovative, earth-friendly, solar structure using energy efficient construction, renewable energy systems and appliances. We envision the new structure as a cultural arts center with a state of the art pre-kindergarten school. We want it to serve as a showcase for how innovative solar structures can work in the historic-minded North Eastern United States.

We also hope to inspire others in our community to do energy efficiency projects, thereby helping the Town of North Salem to significantly reduce its carbon footprint — a goal our town has committed to on its own and as a member of the Northern Westchester Energy Action Consortium.

Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to pay for this project ourselves. The Church has less than 100 members. It is located in a small rural community, a unique phenomenon in Westchester. While the community is relatively affluent, the Church is struggling financially. Our Church leadership team believes that a project of this nature, in addition to being the right thing to do for the planet, could revitalize interest in and support for the Church.

Inspired by the Solar Decathlon project (and the Planet Forward website in general), we would like to explore the idea of finding a team of university students who would be willing and able to help us find sponsors, raise funds, design and build the new structure. We have not yet approached any universities with this idea and we are not sure whether it would qualify as a Solar Decathlon project. We are hoping you could provide us first with some guidance and advice about the soundness of the idea and the best ways to approach it.

Katherine Daniels
Junior Warden
St. James Episcopal Church

13 Responses to “Help this New England Church Become More Efficient”

On January 6th, 2012 at 2:16 pm Brian Pionke, AICP Said:
As a certified Planner, I urge you to look into retrofitting the exisitng building before reconsidering to build a new structure. If you really want to show the community an innovative solution regarding this structure in a historic minded way here are some suggestions. Think of the church as you would a small house. Things as easy as insulating the walls with vermiculite pellets, and the attic with rolled batt insulation can dramatically cut heating and cooling costs. Caulking around windows and door trim can reduce or eliminate drafts. Where possible installing 3M window kits on the interior for very little money also works. Install door sweeps at the base of exterior doors, and/or create a vestibule space at the main entrance as an air lock to keep out cold weather. As money becomes available upgrade the oil heating system to a gas heating system. Converting from radiator heat to forced air is not nearly as difficult as people think. I did it to my house installing vents where the previous pipes came through the floor, and even made some money by selling the radiators. The finished project did not really change the character of the interior space, and created more usable areas in hallways and bathrooms. You could also consider installing solar collectors on the roof to reduce water heating costs.

If the building really does not work for its current intended purpose or a future purpose, it is better to mothball the exisitng building on site and use it for cold storage – if the site is large enough to accommodate a new building, because no church ever has enough storage space.

The cost of these suggestions would be far, far less than the construction of a new building, ( a ratio of 1:100) and would show your commitment to preserving your rich community heritage.
On January 6th, 2012 at 4:44 pm kurt klingbeil Said:
Re-fit before rebuild. Definately more insulation. Off the top, without knowing specifics I would re-skin the inside with 2″ foam.
Adding cavity insulation to the walls first might be worthwhile – especially if one needn’t be cosmetically careful
Probably would use blow-in cellulose. Fill the attic space with blow-in cellulose.

Upgrade windows and doors all around.
Possibly trench in perimeter insulation 4-6″ thick, 2-4′deep all around.
What is the cost of wood-pellets in your area? It might be possible to add/replace
with a pellet furnace/boiler to reduce/eliminate oil burn.

HRV is usually a good idea – especially if the leaky envelope is tightened up.

Solar is difficult to retrofit…
If a long wall is south-facing, without shading, there might be some harvest potential.
On January 7th, 2012 at 2:16 am Martha Leuellen Said:
One practice effective at home and church is switching off the electric water heater breaker at the end of the day. If the breaker is
switched back on 45 minutes (1 heat cycle) before use, the water will be just as hot as if it had been cycling all night. Without the cost of having done so.
On January 7th, 2012 at 9:07 pm Barb Rodgers Said:
Most buildings lose most of its heat out the roof. Forced air heat has made great progress while oil has not – consider new heating system and insulation batting in the attic area and caulking or recaulking all the windows and adding storm windows.
On January 8th, 2012 at 4:00 pm Dana Dake Said:
All of the above recommendations are fantastic! I would consider geothermal heating. It looks like plenty of space available for vertical or horizontal loops.Get rid of the electric water heater and go solar water heat or on demand hot water tank. Check rebates and incentives in the area to see if solar, wind, etc could be implemented. Is this a historical building? If so the building character should be perserved. Benchmark your energy usage and start with no cost or low cost strategies, such as installing lighting controls and lower wattage CFL tubes or lamps. Look for Energy Star appliances and heater. New furnaces are much more efficient, if the existing is older.
On January 8th, 2012 at 11:44 pm Tom Lofft Said:
Retrofitting is one strategy, but you should carefully evaluate the performance specifications you presume to achieve and assure yourselves that any contractor that proposes to do the work has the capacity to perform and the financial backing or performance bonding to assure compliance.

I will paste in sound comments about building very high performance, energy conserving new structures which have been completed in Maine. I suggest you seek to achieve these standards and, based on your initial comments about your present structures, suggest that you will be better served by new high performance construction. Trying to retrofit to these standards would undoubtedly be more expensive than new construction. A bonus may be that if your parcel is large enough to permit it, you can retain use of the present facilities while proceeding with new construction.

Chris Varrone • VIDEO #4 — HIGH PERFORMANCE HOUSE in Belfast, MAINE
* of lectures on Geologic Prototype Home

* this is very long and detailed. May want to go right to last lecture.

Lecture 1. The Foundation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I8-S6WD6V8&feature=related
Lecture 2. Site Work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWEQ8wmzoSQ&feature=related
Lecture 3. Building the Prototype. Framing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjgZDXCn3I&feature=related
Lecture 4. S.I.P Panels. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cPBgqhoO4A&feature=related
Lecture 5. Seam Sealing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y7vPMPa86k&feature=related
Lecture 6. Windows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HELRXnH4WVM&feature=related
Lecture 7. “It’s Finished.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NDTqq3Euz4

* thermal and moisture break from the ground

* use earth’s heat to enhance performance on heat recovery ventilation

* very large (4×24′) panels makes for few joints

* German windows – extremely good energy performance (3 panes), wood frame/aluminum exterior, European glazing accepts 60% of solar energy into home

* recirculating hood for range (example of capturing energy-also cesspool heat recovered!)

* hair dryer could heat the entire house on the coldest night in January!!!

* net zero energy over the course of the year (due to solar PV and thermal systems)

- no dryer: laundry closet for drying clothes

Best wishes for achievement of successful energy conservation.
Tom Lofft
On January 10th, 2012 at 12:22 pm Katherine Daniels Said:
Thank you for all 6 of these comments. We have done an energy audit and we are ticking off as many of the recommendations as we can afford. However, I don’t think retrofiting is the answer. We would like to rent the parish hall for weddings and other upscale events, but it just is not suitable for that purpose. It is currently rented by one or two yoga teachers for classes and as practice space for a few musical groups, but we would love to also make it available as a performance space. The nursery school facility is in great need of renovation. We would like to offer a full day program but cannot — in large part because the building would require substantial rennovation to meet state/county requirements. We think we need a full renovation or a new structure to replace this one. There is not enough space for another building, though it might be possible to orient it to the South.

Thank you Tom for the clips. I will look at them today. They sound spot on. Historic preservaton is very important to us with respect to the Church building but not with the Parish Hall.

Katherine Daniels
Jr. Warden, St James Episcopal Church
On January 10th, 2012 at 3:23 pm Thomas Lofft Said:
I also offer another suggestion to build on the concept of emulating the Solar Decathalon as a design-build competition. Perhaps you might create a challenge to multiple universities which have strong qualifications in building design and construction technology. Close by, I think of RPI at Troy, NY; Pratt in NYC; Cornell at Ithaca; and MIT at Cambridge, MA. It may be overreaching to ask all of these institutions to compete to offer a gratis design for your church, but perhaps they may each be open to a design challenge for the students.
Another strategy would be to challenge each of these and other comparable universities to identify a client non-profit in their own area with a similar need and for each to do a design-build for their own client, and try to get all competitive entries judged by a thrid party such as USGBC for LEED performance.
As to getting it built as a showcase project, I suggest looking at CBS program, “Extrene Makeover: Home Edition” and see if they would undertake an “Extreme Makeover: Institutional Edition”.
A competitive approach would be to go to other major networks and see if they would be interested in developing a competing show, “Rebuilding America: One Church at a Time”.

Best wishes,
Tom Lofft
On January 11th, 2012 at 9:25 am Katherine Daniels Said:
Tom: These suggestions really have me thinking. I think we have the resources (people with the requisite knowledge base) to pitch the concept to the networks, but we would need some help organizing a university design competition. Which of the two concepts do you think has a greater likelihood of success?
Katherine Daniels
Jr. Warden, St James Episcopal Church
On January 11th, 2012 at 4:57 pm David Tarr Said:
If you have never seen compressed earth block, they are the most energy efficient on the planet. The compreesed blocks are made from a block press and are 92 % dirt and 8% cement. It truly keeps cool in hot months and keeps the heat during cold months and much less expensive than concrete blocks. View the video at http://www.habitat-verde.com.
On January 11th, 2012 at 11:36 pm Tom Lofft Said:
My recent suggestions are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but actually sequential. Start with the university approach which I think may happen more easily because independent deans of Architecture are much more out of the box creative thinkers and can adapt a creative design undertaking to their annual educational teaching schedule much quicker than an extremely bureaucratic and internally competitive entertainment network can convince a whole multi-level bureaucracy to adapt a new program concept.

Maybe I’m too cynical. I’m a pragmatist. I like to build things and let others entertain themselves.

I think a university could have your design into the program for next fall, if your supporters start outreach immediately. How many of your congregation or their relatives or LinkedIn connections are architects or alumni from a university with a School of Architecture? That’s a good start.

Meanwhile, also start working to see if major suppliers will climb on board to provide materials, everyone from Potlach and Weyerhauser through Certainteed, Dupont, Icycene, WaterFurnace and Home Depot to start making material commitments for 2013 summer and fall construction. Your schedule is to promote for the next four months, start site & building design in 9/12, finish design by 12/12, manage permitting in winter 2012-13, for a spring groundbreaking in 2013.

Best wishes
On January 19th, 2012 at 1:42 pm Jay Drew, CFM, PMP, SFP Said:
At the Connecticut State Capitol complex we have undertaken a number of lighting efficiency projects. These initiatives have enabled us to reduce operating expenses by over $100,000 per year. We are still identifying opportunities and expanding this program. How much opportunity is available at any facility will depend on usage patterns.

There are a number of sources for lighting efficiency rebates in New England. What and how much can be rebated will depend on which State you are in.

Other programs can be established to purchase more efficient equipment when replacement becomes necessary or target particularly inefficient equipment for replacement as funds become available.

Good luck.
On January 19th, 2012 at 1:43 pm Tim Nyquist Said:
As a college green build educator and BPI Proctor, I was asked the same question a few months back. The building was over 100 years old and had been added on several times. Continuous and aligned building envelope was non-existent. I created a 4 hour building science class for parishioners. After understanding the basics I assigned them to study their building following the continuous & alined rules. The roof over the meeting area was in need of replacement. It was directly applied over a t&g cathedral ceiling with no insulation, therefor They were able to tackle ‘two birds with one stone’; Air-sealed insulation followed by osb then roofing.

The parishioners are continuously meeting to improve a piece at a time to improve efficiency. They chose to have an adopt a window program where, donors can improve the efficiency of beautiful stain glass, with installation of custom storm windows and a plaque with their name.