Reducing our carbon footprint

When he Abbey floor was repaired, an eco-friendly underfloor heating system was installed.

The system is much more energy efficient than the current one and uses 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 worked 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.

We have become more energy efficient, reduced our carbon footprint and are now more responsible stewards of our planet’s resources.

Working in partnership with B&NES Council, we installed 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 provides the potential to heat a number of other city centre buildings.

Kingston Buildings has received a long overdue modernisation. It used to be a draughty Georgian terrace whose remedial insulation work was insufficient to match contemporary environmental criteria.

The Abbey was even more of a gas guzzler. Victorian trench heating sent 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 put 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%.

Footprint installed 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 is powered by the geologically heated water passing through a Roman drain by its front door.

In addition, the new entrances are insulated to modern standards, LED lighting is more energy-efficient and photovoltaic cells on the roof generate house electricity. All these new combined features enable us to do all we can to help the Church of England meet its 'Shrinking the Footprint' target.

The result is an innovative, energy-efficient exploitation of Bath’s famous hot springs at the centre of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.