"Ian Stirling" wrote in message
...
IMM wrote:

"Ian Stirling" wrote in message
...
Rob Morley wrote:
snip
Could they not have used a wind pump instead of electric?

A heat pump is more than simply a pump.
It's basically a refrigerator cooling the field where the coil is
buried
and heating the church.
While in theory you could run this from wind power, it'd be a really
large and complex installation to do so. (in combination with battery
bank to level the load, and ...).

There was ample land around that church to have installed a freestanding
solar array. This could generate low grade hot water stored in a large
thermal store. This would then heat the UFH of the church. That would
not
have been more expensive than the heat pump.

Agree totally, if planning permission could be obtained for it.
Personally, I'd not go for a large thermal store, but an effin huge one,
if possible.

You size it accordingly. You may be on about an inter-seasonal store.

At the very least a weeks worth of heating,
with the collectors double
or triple the nominal heat requirement.

A very large array of cheap collectors can deliver a lot of low grade heat,
which is what UFH operates on. The odd high efficient collector for DHW may
be handy.

And as a bonus, you've got a 'free' olympic sized pool.
(well, maybe not quite that much)