Stirling North Parish Church located in the Braehead area of the town has invested in energy management measures leading to big cuts in its carbon footprint and fuel bills. 

The Church, which was built in 1971, was originally heated by electric storage heaters.  These were expensive to run and inefficient.   Since 2010 the storage heaters have been taken out and replaced with a new and much more energy systems.   These include:

• new and efficient gas central heating
• thermal Solar panels providing hot water
• photo voltaic solar panels generating electricity.  The PV panels take advantage of the UK Government ‘Feed in Tariff’ and so generate a steady income for the church.

The costs of installation were:

• gas central heating: £50,000
• thermal solar panels: £ 5,100
• photo voltaic solar panels: £11,700. 

The PV panels were installed in June 2011 and should provide an annual income of about £1,500, so will pay for themselves in under a decade.
Phil Harris of Stirling North Church, who has led the work says:

‘As a result the church has cut its fuel bills from about £7000 a year to about £3500 a year.  Its carbon footprint has been reduced from 44 tonnes in 2010 to approximately 20  tonnes in 2011!’