Steeple House in Brecon is owned by the Edmund Jones Charity, a small local charity which was first established in 1674. The offices and shops within the building are let, and the profit made after managing the building are used to award grants to local youngsters in further or higher education, or to those undertaking an apprenticeship.
After many years of loyal service, their gas boiler failed its safety inspection. Sally Morris, Clerk to the Trustees for Edmund Jones Charity, enquired about a Sustainable Development Fund grant to Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority, and soon after one of our business energy specialists visited to carry out their free energy survey. After the survey, the charity then potentially qualified for a grant of up to £5,000 towards energy saving measures.
The audit was thorough, looking into all aspects of energy use and potential ways of reducing it. While there were many opportunities to make the building more energy efficient, a new boiler was essential. Given the location of the building and the space available, it was agreed that a replacement would still need to run on gas, but much more efficiently than had previously been the case. Instead of the boiler heating a tank of water each day (very little of which was used), new point of use electric water heaters would be fitted on all the hand basins; this means that in the summer months, very little or no gas would be used.
The charity also acted on the recommendation to increase the loft insulation from 100mm to 30omm right through the loft space. One of the offices at the front of the building relied on electric heaters only. As these were heavy on electricity in the winter months, they would be replaced with gas radiators connected to the new boiler. Finally, all the light fittings in the corridor areas would be replaced with those compatible with LED bulbs, thus reducing electricity usage again.
The total cost of this work, all completed quickly by local tradespeople, was just over £10,000. Thanks to a grant of £5,000 the cost to the charity has been almost halved. With a reduction in future energy usage, the savings will be increased, and of course, our subsequent impact on climate change will be reduced.
Throughout the process, representatives from both the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority and from the Severn Wye Energy Agency have been extremely helpful and supportive, and made applying for the grant very simple. Without the grant, the Edmund Jones Charity would not have been able to make all these improvements.
