Communities Fund has provided £2,930 of match funding
Net Zero Heating Project!
Southampton, England, United Kingdom
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Aim
We are replacing our failed gas boilers with net zero heating, to eliminate our carbon footprint and provide a warm, welcoming building.
Who are we, and what is our project about?
We are a diverse, welcoming church whose values are Welcome, Challenge and Good News. We seek to be a blessing to our community. Over 400 people use our building each week, with many community groups running including Slimming World, Pilates and counselling sessions. As a church we run a Youth Cafe where more than 120 young people each week stop off on their way home from school for food, drink and company, and we provide a Warm Spaces Coffee and Chat session called Encounter for older people in our community. Our Minnows group provides a space for people with young children to meet and receive a friendly welcome.
We have surveyed our users and below are some comments from community groups.
Marie, Fitness Coach: "St Luke's is a valued community hub that enables local people to come together, improve their health and wellbeing, and build lasting social connections. Investing in its facilities will benefit not only my classes but the many other groups and organisations that rely on this wonderful space."
Leanne, Music Bugs: "The church space is perfect for our activity as it has comfortable and safe flooring, a large enough space for all of our children to feel comfortable and explore safely. We use a number of venues in the local area and St Luke's is our busiest and most popular venue for a range of reasons including its central location, ease of access to other local facilities of interest to our families and easy walking distance for lots of them too."
Claire, Slimming World: "St Luke’s is located in a convenient place and well known in the community. Having St Luke’s to hire weekly helps me to support the community to a healthier lifestyle , a very important thing to do for the community of Hedge End ."
Our gas boilers have failed. We are a passionate Eco church, having achieved our Silver Eco award in 2021, and we want to replace our boilers with a Net Zero alternative heating solution. The optimum solution is an Air Source Heat Pump and new radiators for our smaller rooms, and a split system Air Conditioning Unit for our main hall. This will eliminate carbon emissions from our building while ensuring we continue to provide a warm, welcoming space for our community.
Why are we crowdfunding?
The Eco heating solution will cost £72,000 compared to a straight replacement of gas boilers at £7,700. We do not want to take the cheaper option, when we have an opportunity to not only reduce our own carbon emissions, but also demonstrate that environmental heating solutions are viable and effective. We are crowd funding to support this vibrant community facility and to take real, positive action to combat global warming.
How we’ll spend the money raised
We want to fit two Air Source Heat Pumps to heat the hot water system for the radiators in our smaller rooms, and a Split System Air Conditioning system with blowers for our main hall. The total Project budget is £72,000 and the costs break down as:
- Air Source Heat Pumps and Radiators £31,000
- Split System Air Condition and destratification fan £20,000
- Associated Electric and Building Work £10,000
- Associated project costs - Planning, Decant costs etc £5,000
- Contingency £6,000
We have received a grant of £44,000 towards the costs and we now just need to raise the remaining balance in order to progress our project and keep our building warm this winter!
This is an artist's impression of the heat pumps and air con unit.
How you can help
There are two simple ways to get involved and support our project:
1. Make a donation
Every pledge gets us closer to our goal. Early support can help build momentum and inspire others to give too.
2. Spread the word
Share our project with friends, family and your wider network. The more people we reach, the more likely we are to succeed.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 9th November 2026 at 10:59am