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October 31, 2023
In July 2021, the trustees of the Episcopal Southern Ohio Diocese created the Energy Efficiency Grant and Loan Program to reduce their worship facilities' energy usage and engage in Creation Care and environmental action. The program decreases energy consumption by implementing energy-efficient measures in worship facilities. All Episcopal congregations may apply to receive grants of up to $10,000 for energy efficiency measures, such as LED lighting, programmable thermostats, insulation, double-pane windows, high-efficiency boilers, and energy-efficient front doors. Churches can also opt for a five-year low- or no-interest loan of up to $10,000 to help pay for more expensive projects.
The program's goal is to encourage immediate action toward instituting energy-saving practices and, by doing so, heighten awareness of the challenges of climate change from a spiritual perspective. The program offers grants to churches that have performed an energy audit and have a plan to reduce their energy costs. First, each participating church must work with an energy auditor team to perform an ASHRAE Level 2 energy audit of its facilities to determine the energy measures that will most effectively lower energy consumption and maintenance costs. This type of energy audit is recommended for commercial buildings wishing to perform energy efficiency retrofits. It includes a walk-through of the facilities and an energy and financial analysis by a professional energy auditor. The churches must then draft a plan, to be approved by the diocese, to reduce their facility’s energy usage in the long run by installing cost-effective energy efficiency measures.
Participating churches leveraged the energy efficiency grants to install much-needed heat pumps, new efficient lighting, and replace old doors and windows with more efficient ones. The grant program helped churches move forward with energy audits and energy efficiency projects they had in the works for years but could not install due to a lack of resources.
Applications closed in June 2023. Applicants have been awarded $533,047 through 56 grants. Additionally, $121,207 in low-interest loans for energy efficiency improvements have been disbursed.
Before the launch of the Episcopal Southern Ohio Diocese’s energy efficiency program, there was a push for installing solar in churches. But churches were more inclined to install energy efficiency measures first to make their buildings tighter and then install solar panels when their costs were lower. Now, with the Inflation Reduction Act’s "direct pay" tax incentives for nonprofits, Ohio churches may take another look at solar installations.
While participating churches are still evaluating the energy savings generated from the grant-funded projects, four houses of worship in Ohio stand out in their commitment to carbon emission reduction:
Located in Athens, the Church of the Good Shepherd serves the Ohio University campus and its surrounding community. The Episcopal church worked with a local energy auditing company to assess the building's energy usage and needs in 2015, almost a decade and a half after its initial construction.
“The energy audit was invaluable for us as it created a roadmap to help us install energy-efficient measures, which ultimately generated energy savings,” said Dana Carlson, Vestry Member of the Church of the Good Shepherd.
The church first addressed its energy usage issues by installing attic insulation and weatherizing its windows, as these measures tend to be cost-effective while delivering energy savings. Then, in 2018, the church installed programmable thermostats to manage temperature throughout the building based on the time of day. Smart thermostats help the church set low-temperature points when the building is unoccupied and high ones when it is occupied, reducing unnecessary energy consumption.
In addition to the smart thermostat installation, the church replaced all the old air conditioners with ductless mini-split heat pumps in a $75,000 project. Ductless mini-split heat pumps are a two-way heating, ventilation, and cooling system with the ability to heat and cool a building; they are up to four times more efficient than comparable fossil fuel-powered equipment, which helps cut carbon emissions. Heat pumps work similarly to a refrigerator, using electricity and refrigerants to transfer heat. In the winter months, they transfer heat from outside the building to its rooms. During the summer months, they function as air conditioners by transferring indoor heat to the outside.
The 2015 energy audit also helped the church qualify for the Episcopal Energy Efficiency Grant and Loan Program later on in 2021. The church used $4,600 from the $10,000 grant to replace about 44 lighting fixtures with more efficient LEDs, an initiative started in 2018.
Right outside of Columbus, the All Saints Episcopal Church also worked with a local energy auditor to perform an energy assessment that identified potential energy improvement opportunities. Thanks to a grant from Columbia Gas of Ohio, most of the energy audit costs were covered.
While the church was built only 20 years ago, the energy report still found multiple opportunities to reduce energy usage. For the 12 months leading up to its November 2019 energy audit, the building’s energy usage amounted to 63,480-kilowatt hours (kWh) at a cost of about $14,000, with natural gas consumption included.
Driven by the church’s Creation Care mission and its Green Team, several energy efficiency projects were completed, including the replacement of failing weatherstripping on door seals and the replacement of insulated, exposed copper refrigeration piping. The church also upgraded interior and exterior lighting to energy-efficiency LEDs, which resulted in $2,251 in annual energy savings. The costs for the upgrades totaled $21,554, including rebates.
Using a $10,000 grant from the Episcopal Southern Ohio Diocese’s Energy Efficiency Grant and Loan program in 2022, the church replaced six condenser air units that served to cool the building. Because the energy audit found that the old air conditioning units were energy hogs, replacing them was a priority. The more energy-efficient air conditioning units resulted in lower energy costs, especially during the hot summer months.
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church held its first service in 1817 in Circleville, a small town south of Columbus.
According to the Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, the church is located in a disadvantaged community with a high percentage of low-income households. Low income levels, pollution from nearby factories and fossil-fuel power plants, and the presence of lead in homes result in low life expectancies.
Reverend Canon David Getreu, who has been the church’s rector since 2012, is leading the efforts to green the Circleville church. He also serves as the canon for finance and budget for the Diocese of Southern Ohio, managing the Diocese’s Energy Efficiency Grant and Loan program.
In 2015, the church installed nearly 200 high-efficiency LED lights, saving more than 25 percent annually on its electricity bills. The church lowered its rate of electricity usage by about 5,000 kilowatts, resulting in savings of thousands of kWh per month.
The church used its $10,000 grant from the Southern Ohio Diocese’s Energy Efficiency Grant and Loan program to install two high-efficiency furnaces in the Rectory. These units are smaller in size and use a more zonal approach to heating, resulting in energy savings.
Despite being located between Columbus and Cincinnati, two of Ohio’s largest cities, All Saints Church serves a rural community of about 15,000. As a Lutheran-Episcopal church, All Saints Church resulted from a collaboration between the Good Sheperd and Saint Andrew’s churches five years ago.
Built in a drained wetland in the 1950s, the church lacked adequate insulation due to its stone masonry structure.
Like St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, All Saints Church is located in a disadvantaged community, according to the Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool. Because the area’s labor force depends on the fossil fuel industry, it is also eligible for “energy community” bonus clean energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. This means that if the church were to install solar panels or battery storage devices, it would be eligible to claim up to 40 percent of the cost in “direct pay” incentives.
In 2021, the church started taking action by replacing the ceiling lights in the main sanctuary with 200 more efficient LED lights for a total cost of $8,000. A year later, the church used a $10,000 grant and $10,000 loan from the Energy Efficiency Grant and Loan Program to install three new high-efficiency gas-powered furnaces, three new air conditioning units, and three hot water heaters. The program helped the church leverage enough funds to complete the $67,000 project to make the church more energy and water efficient.
“We are a small rural congregation in Ohio, and as a small church, we have a greater challenge than the larger ones to secure resources to install energy efficiency measures,” said Rev. Warren of the Washington Court House All Saints Church. “Energy efficiency upgrades are good for the climate, but those in rural areas are not interested in climate change. They are more interested in the direct benefits of energy efficiency, including energy savings, reduced costs, and lower maintenance costs.”
Author: Miguel Yañez-Barnuevo
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