Wall Mounted Air Source Heat Pumps & Village Hall.

If the hall had a hundred people in it the heating probably would not be required if they were being reasonably active, if they were dancing then it would almost certainly not be required.

We should not rely upon a few hundred Watts from each body to warm a hall. The event was attended by only a few people. Some were cold. So should we all turn our heating off at home and do the Hokey Cokey to keep warm?

www.youtube.com/watch

Z.

Five years ago I organised my mother’s funeral at a country church which has storage heaters, we were charged £60 for turning the heaters on.

Obviously they were on from around midnight until seven o’clock on the morning of the funeral and the church was comfortably warm at eleven o’clock when the service started.

Had the service been in the evening I doubt it would have still been comfortable, so although it’s an option I would not recommend storage heaters for a village hall, I could imagine the play group opening up the heaters and having it toasty warm in the morning, leaving little or no heat for those using the hall later in the evening.

Electric panel heaters would be an option, but extremely expensive to run. 

So the heat pumps may be the best option, assuming that the building is insulated, doors aren’t left open and they are turned on early.

Over the years we have had many discussions about heating churches and halls, some supplementary radiant heaters may be an answer.

New technology always take a bit of getting used to.

If the space is tall, underfloor heating might have been more appropriate - or adjusting the fan speed and louvre positioning so the current of warm air reached the occupied space. No air warming heating system will provide instant heat, so those in charge need to make sure it's started in good time if the building is starting off from cold.

It does sound suspiciously like something the local 'air con' firm has thrown in based more on what they'd do for primarily cooling applications rather than heating, but I could be wrong.

   - Andy.

Sparkingchip said:

Five years ago I organised my mother’s funeral at a country church which has storage heaters, we were charged £60 for turning the heaters on.

Bargain!

There are some rather wonderful old heaters in Ely Cathedral, but there was no heating in all these ancient churches when they were built. As a former chorister, I can assure you all that cassock and surplice provide perfectly adequate lagging.

That is the main problem. The hall committee still have the old "turn it on when needed" mentality. The heaters are only turned on at the start of an event, not before. They are unsuitable for that location in my opinion.

Actually I got more heat from the stage out of the fan cooled L.E.D. PAR cans, although they were a bit noisy.

I think that installing underfloor heating would be very disruptive and expensive. I believe that the local council is very in favour of installing heat pumps.

The air source heat pumps that gently blow out warm air must be very good at distributing germs as well to all of the hall occupants.

At least storage heaters heat the air to a very high temperature and must kill most if not all bugs.

Probably infra red wall heaters would be better.

Z.

I agree that wall mounted infra red heaters might be more effective, these provide instant radiant warmth and also have the benefit that the red glow makes people feel warmer. In all but very small installations these infra red heaters should be switched in groups so as to give three levels of heating. For example 3 heaters on one switch, and 5 one another switch in order that 3 or 5, or all 8 may be turned on, or of course some other numbers but in a similar ratio.

These heaters are almost maintenance free and should operate for years of intermittent use without attention.

Heat pumps are however the current fashion despite high installation costs and the need for maintenance. Heat pumps are arguably suitable for premises that need long hour heating, but less so for intermittent use. 

I think that installing underfloor heating would be very disruptive and expensive

Not necessarily - all depends on the current floor, obvious difficult if you want to preserve an historical surface, but in many situations "underfloor" heating can actually be overlaid on top of the existing floor, with a new surface in top of that.

   - Andy.

Then a lot of heat will be lost downwards presumably with no under insulation.

Z.

Then a lot of heat will be lost downwards presumably with no under insulation.

There will always be some loss downwards, but most overlay systems include a bit of thermal insulation. For large solid floor areas it's sometimes less of an issue anyway as it's much harder for the heat to reach the perimeter in order to escape "outside" - not so long ago building regs allowed thermal insulation to be reduced or omitted entirely if the floor was over a certain size and shape (i.e. not long and thin) - in effect the ground under floor was regarded as being inside the thermal envelope. Less effective if the building is allowed to cool down completely between uses though.

   - Andy.