Clean Energy Consultancy assisted the Norfolk Broads community of Neatishead, to design and build a straw bale village hall. Subsequently, after advising the community and the project trustee’s on the construction and renewable energy options, the community of Neatishead are the proud owners of Neatishead New Victory Hall, the first new community hall in England to be a straw bale construction project. 

Clean Energy assisted the village hall trustees and their architect to design an environmentally sensitive hall that would be constructed with the help of the local community using locally produced straw bales. A ground sourced heat pump with a 24kw output and a trench ground collector was recommended to provide space heating and the proposed high insulation level of the straw building exceeded Building Regulation requirements minimising the buildings heat losses, energy demand and carbon emissions.

The project was awarded the CSEP development and capital grants and the LCBP capital grant to fund the ground sourced heat pump system. Clean Energy produced a project feasibility study and determined the space heating demand for New Victory Hall was 57,200 kWh per year. An oil system would use 5,500 litres at a cost of £2,200 producing 14.3 tonnes of CO2 annually compared with the Dimplex heat pump using 12,600 kWh of electricity at an annual cost of £1,400 and producing 5.4 tonnes of CO2 per year assuming severe winter conditions.

Neatishead New Victory Hall