When the Abbey floor is repaired, an eco-friendly underfloor heating system will be installed.
The system will be much more energy efficient than the current one and will use Bath’s greatest natural resource: its hot waters.
Every day 1.1 million litres of hot water flow through the Roman Baths from underground springs. Most of it travels straight past the Abbey and into the river. We will work with Bath and North East Somerset Council to use this hot water to produce enough energy to heat the Abbey and the Romans Baths & Pump Room complex.
By working together, we will become more energy efficient, reduce our carbon footprint and be more responsible stewards of our planet’s resources.
Working in partnership with B&NES Council, we plan to install innovative heat exchange technology and new underfloor heating systems for the Abbey and Kingston Buildings using waste hot water from the nearby Roman Baths. This will also provide the potential to heat a number of other city centre buildings.
Kingston Buildings is long overdue for modernisation. It is a draughty Georgian terrace whose remedial insulation work is insufficient to match contemporary environmental criteria.
The Abbey is even more of a gas guzzler. Victorian trench heating sends hot air up on a rapid trajectory into the soaring perpendicular vaulting, stimulating down draughts from the windows to create cold spots at ground level. A soaring fuel bill puts the Abbey way out of line with the Church of England’s ‘Shrinking the Footprint’ national environmental campaign. The Church as a whole is committed to an 80% carbon reduction by 2050 with an interim 2020 target of 42%.
Our plan for Footprint is to install dispersed underfloor heating to create a low level cushion of heat that does not rise so fast. The most exciting part of this is that it will be powered by the geologically heated water passing through a Roman drain by its front door.
In addition, new entrances will be insulated to modern standards, LED lighting will be more energy-efficient and photovoltaic cells on the roof will generate house electricity. All these new combined features will enable us to do all we can to help the Church of England meet its 'Shrinking the Footprint' target.
The result will be an innovative, energy-efficient exploitation of Bath’s famous hot springs at the centre of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
