Church Energy Efficiency

Calvary United Methodist Church
Annapolis, MD

The mission of Calvary United Methodist Church in Annapolis, Maryland, is to impact people’s lives: to promote education, fellowship, worship and outreach. But in 1987, high energy bills threatened the church’s day school and child care program. Since the school operated every day, it was assumed that it was culprit behind Calvary’s high energy costs.

When Mary Jean Baker, a member of the Education Commission, analyzed the church’s electric bills, however, she discovered that at least half the charges were due to the fact that the utility company set the church’s rates according to “demand” -- the highest half hour of electricity usage during the month. The real energy culprits turned out to be the entire congregation.

An Energy Conservation Committee was formed to try to gain control of energy demand. The committee’s initial efforts were low-tech. Mary Jean chaired an Idea Exchange, gathering representatives from each program sponsored by the church to discuss ways to save energy. The committee also asked experts from the local utility for suggestions. Summer demand was reduced by restricting midday activities during the week, using old clock timers to schedule energy use, and “running around turning things off.” After making some improvements and writing a report, the committee was disbanded.

But soon after, much of the energy savings disappeared as usage of the church building began to increase. It was time for a step up in technology. Mary Jean began shopping for an electronic energy monitor. This device enabled the church to automatically manage the heating and cooling system to control demand, schedule machinery and outside lighting more efficiently, and gather data on how the building utilized energy.

People now were free to schedule activities whenever they wanted. In 1994, the church knew they were on the right track when they were able to manage a very large funeral, during Vacation Bible School, on a hot summer day with an energy demand of only 94 kilowatts. The goal had been to keep weekday demand below 100 kilowatts.

By 1997, Mary Jean realized that the building’s use had doubled in the past ten years with only a small increase in energy consumption. “To me,” Mary Jean says, “efficiency depends on the amount of fruit per unit of input. We can’t measure spiritual growth, per se. We can measure energy demand and energy consumption. We know that there were more people engaged in more activities which they claim were meaningful, while there had been little change in monetary costs for energy.”