Connecticut Church Finds Big Savings Through Energy Efficiency | Article

Pastor Adam DePasquale, lead pastor at Walnut Hill Community Church in Connecticut, knew that it would be important to proactively address his buildings’ energy needs as they age. A nondenominational evangelical church, Walnut Hill has several facilities across Bethel, New Bedford, Derby, and Waterford (four towns in northwest Connecticut) offering services to 2,000 people on Sundays, and it is important to Pastor DePasquale that they be comfortable when they visit.

A view of the Bethel Campus. Credit: Walnut Hill Community Church

“We knew that our eight buildings laid across four campuses were getting older and would need increased repairs with added high-value costs,” said Pastor DePasquale. “We wanted to address the buildings' increased energy usage by investing in energy efficiency to be better stewards of energy.”

To understand the energy needs of its 130,000 square-feet of buildings and the efficiency work that would be required, the church hired a professional energy auditor to perform a comprehensive energy assessment in 2016. The goal was to create a detailed 20-year schedule for the energy needs of all eight buildings in the church and develop a strategy for the church to raise the necessary funds to tackle the energy upgrades.

“As a multi-campus church with several buildings and community offerings, we wanted to be strategic with our energy investments,” said Pastor DePasquale. “We did not want to look at short-term energy upgrade patches, but rather at all the energy systems, how they work, and how they can be more energy efficient with a long-term view in mind, including future energy needs.”

Overall Project Cost	$217,779
Estimated Energy Savings per year	$53,353
Number of Years to Pay Off Project	4.08 years
Percent Savings	24.23%

The 70-page-long energy assessment offered multiple recommendations on how the church can reduce energy costs and decrease operations expenses while saving money on utility bills. The report uncovered several saving opportunities across the facilities, mainly around system controls, heating and cooling systems (HVAC), water heaters, boiler configuration, building envelope (e.g., insulation and weatherstripping), and lighting systems.

The church's total costs were estimated at $217,779 in 2016, with projected annual energy savings of $53,353 and a simple payback of about four years.

Bethel Hall Energy Systems Replacement Project

Located on Walnut Hill’s first and largest campus, Bethel Hall is a large worship center in Bethel, Connecticut. Bethell Hall encompasses 37,710 square feet spread across two floors and includes a sanctuary and a fellowship hall. The sanctuary seats between 800 and 830 and the fellowship hall about 150. Since its construction in 1998, it has been expanded several times. With each addition, a new HVAC system was installed, creating three different HVAC systems with different configurations and lifespans under the same roof. This configuration has led to wasted energy and higher energy usage as the church lacked a centralized location to set room temperatures. Instead, thermostats had to be turned on manually by church staff, and when rooms went unoccupied for long periods, the temperature set points were too low during summer months or too high in winter months. This led to a cascade of energy inefficiencies resulting in higher energy costs.

The inside of Bethel Hall. Credit: Walnut Hill Community Church

In one of its most significant energy efficiency projects, the church overhauled the Bethel Hall HVAC system to address these structural issues and cut energy costs. As part of its HVAC system, the hall had an outdated system of water chillers and boilers that were used to heat and cool the building. To address this, the project centralized all of the old cooling and heating systems by replacing the chillers and boilers with a single split-HVAC system and an outdoor Variable Refrigerant Flow heat pump.

By replacing the water chillers and boilers with a heat pump system, the church did away with propane usage in that wing of the church, which resulted in energy savings of 22 percent. Propane is an expensive fuel and is not particularly efficient, whereas heat pumps run on electricity and are very efficient. For every kilowatt hour of electricity a heat pump uses, it produces two to four kilowatt hours of heat energy, making it up to four times more efficient than a regular propane-fueled boiler or furnace. Higher efficiency translates into lower energy bills. Heat pumps work like a refrigerator, using electricity and a compressed condensing liquid to transfer heat from a cool space to a warm room, making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer. That transfer process is generally much more efficient than directly warming the air, the process used by boilers, furnaces, radiators, and other traditional heating systems. Heat pumps can also be used to cool spaces.

Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems are large ductless heat pumps mainly used in commercial spaces to heat or cool many large spaces at once, such as those in Bethel Hall. VRF features a single refrigerant circuit with one or more outdoor units. In the case of Bethel Hall, a refrigerant liquid runs in a circuit from several units installed on the building’s roof to the multiple ceiling cassettes of different rooms in the renovated wing. The conduits that connect the indoor and outdoor units are hidden within the ceiling. Depending on the season, hot or cool air comes out from the sides of the ceiling cassettes.

Variable frequency drives, small electric motors that control air flow speed, were also added to the ceiling cassettes. Adding these devices to the VRF heat pump system improves energy efficiency by optimizing the flow of air, which helps shave energy consumption during high demand periods. As a result, the church sees energy cost reductions.

Each room in the renovated wing of Bethel Hall is equipped with smart controllable thermostats, allowing church personnel to set room temperatures that maximize comfort and energy savings. With boilers, particularly older ones, this is not possible as they run continuously until they are turned off, resulting in energy waste and high energy bills.

So far, the church has only changed half of the HVAC system, with the rest to be completed over the next few years. But the new heat pump system is already yielding energy and monetary savings for the church. Comparing the church’s utility costs before the project started in 2016 to now, the church is saving $18,042 annually in electricity and propane costs. And this 12 percent annual reduction in energy costs does not even take into account the increase in electricity and propane rates that have occurred in the same timeframe. If those rate increases were factored in, the savings would be even larger. When the replacement is complete, the church expects to reduce its propane usage, energy costs, and carbon emissions even further.

	2016-2017 Utility Bill	2021-2022 Utility Bill	Annual Savings	Percent Annual Savings
Electric	$120,384.19	$109,518.95	$10,865.24	9%
Propane	$33,109.92	$25,932.87	$7,177.05	22%
Total	$153,494.11	$135,451.82	$18,042.29	12%

In addition to replacing the HVAC system, the church also installed temperature controls and sensors linked to the central system in each room. Adding and replacing traditional thermostats with Wi-Fi-enabled ones allows the church to schedule thermostat holidays, set temperature points, and control the HVAC system by area from one centralized location. With the new controls, sensors, and thermostats, the church can schedule the times when the HVAC is running, improving the comfort and health of the congregation's members and increasing monetary savings.

While the new equipment offers substantial improvements in energy efficiency, it has come with a few challenges. Retrofitting the new heat pump systems into the existing air chandlers made for a simpler installation, but it means the heat pumps have a harder time heating large spaces in cold weather. To compensate, the church preheats the spaces to 64 degrees the day before a service and then raises the temperature to 70 the day of.

Financing the Energy Efficiency Projects

Financing for the church’s energy efficiency upgrades consisted of a mix of internal funds, utility rebates, utility financing programs, and energy-saving opportunities. Because the energy assessment report mapped out cost-effective energy improvements for the church’s facilities for the next 20 years, it allowed the energy and financial teams to optimize the upgrade schedule.

Armed with the report, the church’s board of directors approved the projects back in 2016 and set aside $150,000 annually for capital improvements. The board particularly liked how the assessment projected forward energy expenses (e.g., maintenance and repair costs) from current equipment and compared them against energy and monetary savings resulting from new and more efficient equipment. Having a long-range plan for energy improvements allowed the church to successfully claim rebates for lighting and thermostats offered by their utility, Eversource. As a religious organization, the Walnut Hill Community Church qualified for rebates and zero-interest financing through Eversource's Energize Connecticut program for small businesses. Using the on-bill financing program offered by Energize Connecticut and Eversource, the church replaced most of its lighting systems by financing them over five years.

“Thanks to the energy assessment, we became more aware of our heating and cooling needs and the opportunities to make our buildings more energy efficient while reducing costs,” said Pastor DePasquale. “Churches are almost like families. The church can benefit future generations, who will be in charge of the facilities, by improving the buildings’ energy operations and costs. Energy efficiency improvements generate financial, environmental, and intergenerational benefits.”

Author: Miguel Yañez-Barnuevo