St Ninian’s Church of Scotland Cut Energy Costs & Emissions with HeatingSave

In west Edinburgh sits the gorgeous and towering St Ninian’s Church of Scotland. The church’s suite comprises 10 halls of various sizes that can accommodate up to 600 people. These halls are rented out to local organisations and host classes from dancing to day nurseries — solidifying the feel of a community.

Our HeatingSave reporter spoke to Ian Kirkpatrick, the current church holder, to find out how St Ninian’s has benefitted from having a HeatingSave Energy Management Systems controlling their heating.

HeatingSave was installed back in 2010, “Our Fabric Convener at the time, who had a PhD in electrical engineering, identified the need,” mentioned Ian. “His aim was to make savings and help with environmental matters by using less fuel.”

The church was heated by two Worcester gas boilers with a simple control system. With activities ranging from sports club to a bridge club for the elderly, “the biggest number of complaints he got was about the temperatures,” said Ian. (A common issue most community venues face).

Mr Kirkpatrick continued, “The problem was one group would reset the thermostat to suit themselves and not set it back. We recognised we needed to take this out of the control of the users and control it centrally. We knew by talking to HeatingSave, we would save money.”

The HeatingSave reporter then asked Ian if he now feels the church uses the system to its full potential, to which the response was “Yes, we control it remotely, we get the hall bookings a month at a time and pre-set everything. I’m sure HeatingSave is capable of more, but it meets our requirements.”

St Ninian’s Church mentioned they have “no problems” using the heating diary system and room booking software. “We have regular users and the default settings to make things easy. There are also sporadic meetings with various groups — the heating diary function saves us a lot of work, compared to our previous system, which took quite a lot of work. HeatingSave is easy to use and I’ve even been able to train others on how to use it too.”

Ian was also happy to mention that the church has “just downloaded the HeatingSave mobile app for when he is not in the building or emergencies — it meets a shortcoming we once had. Now I can do anything, anywhere, any time.”

When asked if they believe they have saved on their fuel bills, Ian quickly replied “Yes, noticeably! I was speaking to a member of the Edinburgh Presbytery not too long ago and they said if only he could get all other churches to use HeatingSave, we’d all be saving a lot of money!”

When asked what Ian likes most about HeatingSave, he said “the ease of setting everything” and the “very friendly, very helpful” Helpdesk.

Finally, Mr Kirkpatrick was asked to end the conversation by summing up HeatingSave: “HeatingSave gives good control and saves money. As simple as that.”

Customer Information

St Ninian’s Church of Scotland
144 St Johns Road
Edinburgh
EH12 8AY

Website: corstorphinestninians.org.uk
Phone: 01313 164777
Email: office@st-ninians.co.uk