The Old Ale & Coffee House is a food-led pub in the centre of Salisbury, a short walk away from Salisbury Cathedral. The owners have managed the pub since 2016, and welcome tourists in the day and locals of all ages in the evening who come to to enjoy craft drinks, delicious food and a beautiful pub setting.
The building is Grade 2 listed, and comprises a large bar area serving hot food and holding a wide range of drinks, and a beer garden for customers at the rear. The upstairs of the extended building incorporates customer bathrooms, the pub kitchen and living accommodation for staff.
The pub uses mains gas for space heating and for most of the water heating requirements. Electricity is primarily used for cellar cooling, refrigeration systems, kitchen equipment and for lighting, the annual carbon impact of which was calculated at around 63 tonnes a year.
An energy saving advice survey was carried out in October 2024.
Recommendations were made to improve the minimal coverage of loft insulation within accessible loft voids and to add secondary glazing to a number of the old single glazed sash windows. This is expected to save the organisation around £1,350 on their annual energy costs (a 3.6% saving of their yearly energy costs) and over 4.2 tonnes of carbon annually.
Over the expected lifetime* of the measures, this offers a saving of over £35,000 for a capital installation cost of around £13,400 (prior to grant funding).
This work was completed in early 2025, supported by funding through Wiltshire Council, from their Fit for Net Zero and Wiltshire Towns Decarbonisation schemes.
Next steps for the pub in its carbon reduction journey is likely to involve smart energy saving technologies such as ambient cooling systems to reduce cellar cooling demands. Weather compensation and improved, zoned heating controls could be added to gas boilers.
In the longer term, replacing gas heating with efficient heat pumps will significantly reduce their carbon impact, perhaps supported by a solar PV array if this became possible for this central Salisbury location.
*Secondary glazing lifetime savings 20 years, loft insulation 27 years
Future plans to save energy
“The survey was excellent as it put a cost to all the opportunities and highlighted the potential savings. Not only have we insulated our attic but it has made me look at all areas for future energy reduction including double glazing, new equipment and general energy use. It’s too early to see the changes but we are substantially more aware of all our energy use.
We’d definitely like to improve the heat loss through old windows and have received planning permission for solar panels in order to discuss these with our landlord.”
