Freshford Village Memorial Hall has recently completed the first major refurbishment since it was built in the 1960s. The work included installing external wall insulation, triple glazing and replacing it’s oil heating system with heat pumps. This has led to a 93% reduction in CO2 emissions and between a 30% and 40% reduction in heating costs. The hall is part of the village’s community hub, along with the community run Galleries Shop and Cafe. It is run by the hall’s charity and supports a wide range of community events and is the home for the village’s pre-school.
The external wall insulation, shown in the photo above, installed behind cedar shakes, insulated metal roof, combined with triple glazing which replaced single glazing has reduced the hall’s heat losses by more than 50%. The newly installed air to air heat pumps reduced the previous 1960s oil heating system’s carbon emissions by more than 75%.
The hall also has an innovative heating control system developed by a villager which is cloud-based. It automatically turns the heating on just before events booked on the hall’s online google calendar, ensuring the heating is only on when the hall is in use, and at a minimum temperature suitable for the type of event. The new heat pumps allow the hall to be split up into up to 8 heating zones ensuring only those rooms which are in use are heated, further reducing heat demand.
Combined these new measures have reduced the hall’s CO2 emissions by 93% since the completion of the work in December 2022. The trustees hope that this work will act as an exemplar for other community buildings in the UK.
The work funded by grant funding from a variety of sources including BWCE’s Community Energy Fund. Further work is planned subject to funding, which includes refurbishing the foyer area (insulation etc., right hand end of the building in the photo above), redecorating the inside of the building, installing solar PV panels and further improving the user friendliness of the heating control system.