Wisconsin Church Saves Money, Keeps Staff Comfortable with New Boilers

Madison, Wis. – The failing boilers at Door Creek Church were not only hurting heating efficiency – they were also hurting staff efficiency.

“[The boilers] forced us to encourage staff to work remotely, which, from a teamwork perspective, was not helpful,” said Church Finance and Operations Manager Mark Felton, adding that they were even forced to completely close their offices at times due to the boiler system not working.

That inefficiency is not a problem anymore after Door Creek Church partnered with its utility, Madison Gas & Electric (MG&E), along with FOCUS ON ENERGY® and Cardinal Heating & Air Conditioning on a project to install two new high-efficiency boilers.

Church staff was familiar with Focus on Energy from a previous project upgrading air-conditioning units and worked with Shawn Bode, an Energy Advisor from Focus on Energy, to pick out new boilers.

“[Focus on Energy] helped us in the review of the equipment to ensure that they met energy efficient ratings,” Felton explained.

The church wound up installing two new boilers that will provide hundreds in annual energy savings and lifetime energy savings of 68,400 therms of natural gas. That is enough energy to power 41 homes for a full year.

“As a church, we want to minimize operating costs so that more funds are available for advancing our mission. It also makes sense from an environmental perspective,” Felton said.

Focus on Energy gave the church a $3,000 financial incentive to help offset the initial cost of the new boilers.

Door Creek Church is a ratepayer of MG&E, one of the 107 Wisconsin utilities that partner in the Focus on Energy Program. All ratepayers of those utilities are eligible for the energy expertise and financial incentives the Program offers.

A third-party evaluation revealed Wisconsin runs the most cost-effective energy efficiency programs in the nation, in terms of energy savings per dollar spent. The same evaluation found every $1 invested in Focus on Energy generates $5 in benefits for Wisconsin, including economic benefits, reduced energy costs and reduced pollution.