Our story
Measham Community and Recreation Centre is almost entirely dependent on mains gas and electricity for the provision of heating hot water and power for electrical devices. The centre became interested in decarbonising its energy sources and reducing its running costs to make the centre more sustainable for the future.
The project's goal was to identify the technical and economic feasibility of adopting renewable energy at Measham Community and Recreation Centre, as well as possible alternative scenarios to provide heating, hot water and power to identify the potential for: reducing running costs at the centre; reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and benefiting and engaging the community in such improvements.
In addition, the project should enable the Measham Medical Unit and Measham Library to gain insight into this process in order to observe how conclusions may be relevant to these sites for both individual and collective gain.
Our advice
The feasibility study was a really useful tool in looking at how the centre currently operates and how we could reduce our energy consumption by looking at alternative sources of energy provision and also looking at how we could reduce costs with quick-wins and managed upgrades.
We set up an energy working party looking to involve the Measham Medical Unit and Measham Library – we managed to engage the medical unit in early discussions on the project but failed to engage the library.
The idea was to create a community energy project all three sites could benefit from and that is still the long-term aim with the installation of the PV.
We managed to engage the Parish Council in the project with a presentation on the project and a questions and answers session.
To be able to deliver the PV element of the project we need to be able to access appropriate funding – which we are in the process of doing – but this is very time consuming when you are having to manage a facility at the same time.
We would suggest that when taking on a project, getting a team of volunteers or staff together who are interested and able to help you deliver it is important, as it is very difficult to do this on your own.
Our metrics
We will monitor the benefits through bills and customer feedback on temperature control in rooms within the facility.
We will continue to pursue the installation of PV on the roof of the building to further reduce our carbon footprint.
