In recent years our village hall has undergone a number of building improvements during which time a number of measures have been incorporated to provide a 'green' building. It now provides a well constructed and energy saving building that is highly used throughout the year for the benefit of all. Electricity is used as the main source of energy to heat, light and power the entire building. A Case Study of the installation can be downloaded here. The village hall is listed here on "Suffolk Green Buildings Network" website.
The Trustees of the Management Committee are committed to;-
- Providing a Safe, Healthy and Inclusive Community
- Reducing the hall's energy costs and carbon footprint.
- Working with the community to reduce energy usage and CO2 emissions.
- Working in Partnership with organisations to help make Suffolk the Greenest County.
- Promoting energy efficient measures in our Village Hall as an example to others throughout Suffolk.
To meet these aims a number of green measures have been adopted.
- The provision of a wide range of activities within the community to avoid the need for people to travel long journeys to other locations in their cars and other means of transport thus reducing our carbon footprint.
- High specification insulation incorporated within the structure of the building to reduce heat loss including double-glazing throughout the entire building and wall, ceiling and floor insulation that, in some areas, exceeds Local Authority Building Control requirements.
- A range of electric meters to monitor energy use in all areas of the building
- Natural daylight and ventilation to all areas
- The provision of cycle racks to encourage people to cycle to the hall
- Energy efficient lighting where possible
- Solar powered window blinds.
- An 18kw ground source heat pump, calculated to have a coefficient of performance (cop) output of around 3.5 that provides constant heat throughout the entire building using energy from 4 ground boreholes.
- A 4kw solar photovoltaic scheme (PV) to generate our own electricity.
All measures and projects have been initiated, researched and managed throughout by a small team of volunteer village hall committee members. The provision of a wide range of facilities at local level in an energy efficient and warm environment has not only resulted in energy savings but at the same time has shown a dramatic increase in the building use, and a large increase in the the number of people that benefit from the measures that have taken place, saving people the need to travel elsewhere.