Decarbonizing Historic Houses of Worship Through Localized Pew Heating
As I write this reflection, I am very much still in the middle of this project. Despite this, I have learned a lot since I began working on it last semester. For this reason, I think it makes sense to address what I have done, and how it has impacted what I will continue to do to complete this experience beyond this final reflection for the "honors experience" aspect of the project. In November of 2023, my team members and I applied for a small grant from ASHRAE to fund the installation of pew heating in a church in Norwood, Ohio, Vineyard Central. The goal of this project was to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by replacing natural gas powered rooftop units that had been inefficiently heating the whole body of air in the sanctuary with pew heaters, which can be placed directly under occupants, and have been shown to provide much more efficient and comfortable heating. This strategy is popular in the UK and EU, but has not been widely adopted in the United States. This project provided the perfect chance to test the method on a small scale, and hopefully prove the concept's applicability in the US, leading to widescale adoption, decarbonization, and energy savings in Cincinnati and beyond.
From the start of this project, we dealt with unexpected challenges. We learned that we received the grant at the ASHRAE Winter Conference this January in Chicago, but only one team member was told, and we almost weren't allowed to attend the event where it was announced. Despite this hiccup, after learning we won, I began contacting the pew heater manufacturer and an exporter in the UK almost immediately. Although the heating season in Cincinnati typically lasts through April, I wasn't sure how long it would take to receive the heaters from overseas, and have them installed properly. Despite my rush, the pew heaters didn't end up being ordered until February, and were installed in March. Despite this, there was plenty of project work to be done in the meantime. I helped design a survey to administer to occupants, to gauge the thermal comfort of the new system, and help the Pastor and other stakeholders see how people are experiencing the system. A detailed experimental setup was also designed. The purpose of this was to collect detailed information about the temperature of the pews and surrounding areas during operation, and connect people's opinions on comfort to quantitative data. Our team also designed a process to collect natural gas and electricity data. If we were going to convince places of worship to adopt this idea, we wanted to ensure it was really providing savings. Recently, we have come across new challenges in the project. After testing the installed pew heaters on a mildly chilly day (high 40s - low 50s F), prior to their use during a service, our team came to an unanimous opinion that they were a little disappointing. My hands and legs felt warm, but the face and upper torso felt the same as elsewhere in the church, and we had doubts about their effectiveness on truly cold days. Although they almost certainly felt more comfortable than the older system, we also wanted them to be warm enough to operate on their own, or else energy use and carbon emissions could effectively increase.
Going forward, we will be collecting survey and quantitative data to understand better how the system is working now, and how people feel about it. Since it isn't too cold out most of the time these days, we are hopeful that the occupants will see an improvement from the previous system. In the meantime, we are exploring strategies to ensure the pew heaters are operating in the most efficient manner possible. I will be reaching out to the maker of the heaters to see if they can be mounted closer to the front of the pews, rather than being set back as they are now, and we will ensure they are operating at full capacity by monitoring electricity usage during church services over the next weeks. It's possible that some of the issues are currently arising from conversion issues between European and American outlet voltages. At the same time, I will be attempting to reach out to churches in the UK who have had success with pew heaters, so see what (if anything) they are doing differently. There seems to be ubiquitous approval of pew heating in reviewed literature and case studies, and my team and I are committed to understanding and attempting to implement this strategy in this church, and ultimately sharing the lessons we learn at the end of the project timeline.
As I write this reflection, I am very much still in the middle of this project. Despite this, I have learned a lot since I began working on it last semester. For this reason, I think it makes sense to address what I have done, and how it has impacted what I will continue to do to complete this experience beyond this final reflection for the "honors experience" aspect of the project. In November of 2023, my team members and I applied for a small grant from ASHRAE to fund the installation of pew heating in a church in Norwood, Ohio, Vineyard Central. The goal of this project was to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by replacing natural gas powered rooftop units that had been inefficiently heating the whole body of air in the sanctuary with pew heaters, which can be placed directly under occupants, and have been shown to provide much more efficient and comfortable heating. This strategy is popular in the UK and EU, but has not been widely adopted in the United States. This project provided the perfect chance to test the method on a small scale, and hopefully prove the concept's applicability in the US, leading to widescale adoption, decarbonization, and energy savings in Cincinnati and beyond.
From the start of this project, we dealt with unexpected challenges. We learned that we received the grant at the ASHRAE Winter Conference this January in Chicago, but only one team member was told, and we almost weren't allowed to attend the event where it was announced. Despite this hiccup, after learning we won, I began contacting the pew heater manufacturer and an exporter in the UK almost immediately. Although the heating season in Cincinnati typically lasts through April, I wasn't sure how long it would take to receive the heaters from overseas, and have them installed properly. Despite my rush, the pew heaters didn't end up being ordered until February, and were installed in March. Despite this, there was plenty of project work to be done in the meantime. I helped design a survey to administer to occupants, to gauge the thermal comfort of the new system, and help the Pastor and other stakeholders see how people are experiencing the system. A detailed experimental setup was also designed. The purpose of this was to collect detailed information about the temperature of the pews and surrounding areas during operation, and connect people's opinions on comfort to quantitative data. Our team also designed a process to collect natural gas and electricity data. If we were going to convince places of worship to adopt this idea, we wanted to ensure it was really providing savings. Recently, we have come across new challenges in the project. After testing the installed pew heaters on a mildly chilly day (high 40s - low 50s F), prior to their use during a service, our team came to an unanimous opinion that they were a little disappointing. My hands and legs felt warm, but the face and upper torso felt the same as elsewhere in the church, and we had doubts about their effectiveness on truly cold days. Although they almost certainly felt more comfortable than the older system, we also wanted them to be warm enough to operate on their own, or else energy use and carbon emissions could effectively increase.
Going forward, we will be collecting survey and quantitative data to understand better how the system is working now, and how people feel about it. Since it isn't too cold out most of the time these days, we are hopeful that the occupants will see an improvement from the previous system. In the meantime, we are exploring strategies to ensure the pew heaters are operating in the most efficient manner possible. I will be reaching out to the maker of the heaters to see if they can be mounted closer to the front of the pews, rather than being set back as they are now, and we will ensure they are operating at full capacity by monitoring electricity usage during church services over the next weeks. It's possible that some of the issues are currently arising from conversion issues between European and American outlet voltages. At the same time, I will be attempting to reach out to churches in the UK who have had success with pew heaters, so see what (if anything) they are doing differently. There seems to be ubiquitous approval of pew heating in reviewed literature and case studies, and my team and I are committed to understanding and attempting to implement this strategy in this church, and ultimately sharing the lessons we learn at the end of the project timeline.