The above video, which includes clips from St Michael's, was shown to the CofE's General Synod on 8th July 2022 as it endorsed the CofE's Pathway to Net Zero Carbon.

In 2017 St Michael's started a project to radically reduce its electricity consumption.  This involved replacing the under pew heaters with new electric heaters which heat the space where people sit rather than the whole building space.  The new heaters were installed early in 2018 and led to a reduction in electricity consumption of about 50%.  This was partly because the wattage of the new system was lower, but mainly because the new heaters only need to be turned on 30 minutes before the service, whereas the old system needed a minimum of two hours.

All accessible light bulbs were also replaced with LEDs.  

The church is electric only (no mains water or gas) so when the electricity purchase was moved to a renewable supplier the church became more or less carbon neutral.  To make double sure that the church is net zero the PCC pays for 2 tonne CO2 offset every year.

The national CofE Environment Programme estimates that the CofE has around 4,000 small local churches could become carbon neutral in a similar way to St Michael's.  This led to the church being featured on the national website and a video was made.  See: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/environment-and-climate-change/electric-heating-baddesley-st-michael.

For more information about the heating project please contact the PCC Projects Manager, Graham Hughes, on 01564 784636 or [email protected].