Seaford Golf Club

Seaford Golf Club moved to its current location, overlooking the South Downs and English Channel, in 1907.

While the age of the original clubhouse, coupled with alterations and extensions to provide for a growing membership, now present a range of energy efficiency challenges, members have been taking a systematic approach to improving the building fabric and its services.

They received guidance from a free Energy Audit through the Energy Efficient East Sussex programme.

As Club Secretary Lawrence Dennis-Smither explained, their initial focus has been on lower-cost, quick win measures.

“We started by replacing halogen spotlights in the bar area with LEDs; they’ve covered their cost in energy savings in less than a year and reduced maintenance requirements. We also identified equipment that could be switched off overnight, such as display lighting in bar fridges.

“As recommended in our Energy Audit, we topped-up loft insulation in pitched roof spaces and fitted insulation to hot water pipework. Both tasks were undertaken by our club members, leaving a bill of just £610 for the materials which we have quickly recouped in gas savings. There was over 30 metres of exposed pipework running to and from the hot water cylinder – the room was often like a sauna!”

Lawrence closely monitors consumption, taking regular meter readings. Gas and electricity usage in 2015 was 12.6% and 13.2% lower than in 2013.

A £25 sub-meter was installed to record the electricity used by a trace heating system, in place to ensure hot water is instantly available in guestrooms despite a long pipe run from the boiler.

Originally switched on continuously, the trace-heating is now turned off between December and February when guestrooms are not in use, resulting in annual saving of 4,800 kWh and £575.

Next the golf club plan to install double-glazing in the bar and lounge area. Whilst a relatively expensive measure, it will provide improvements to building user comfort and security on top of energy cost savings of at least £150 per year.

Energy Efficient East Sussex helped SMEs reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by over 150 tonnes. It was funded by East Sussex County Council and delivered by the Sustainable Business Partnership CIC.

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