BETHLEHEM, Pa. — For the first 25 years after it was built in 1806, Central Moravian Church had no heat at all, Barry Pell said.
“Over the years, just like the ways of heating buildings have changed, we had coal for a while and so forth,” said Pell, an architect and historian, during a recent tour of the property at 73 W. Church St. “We got the current system in the mid-20th century and it's time for a change.
“We've have an ongoing effort, what we call ‘Care for Creation,’ where we, among other things, are interested in sustainable energy sources.”
More than 200 years after the sanctuary was built, church leaders are working to make its heating and cooling more sustainable, including an updated ventilation system to keep healthy air flowing for parishioners.
While work is already underway, with services going on as scheduled, the oldest Moravian Church in North America still sorely needs funding — the church has so far raised just over half of its $1.6 million goal to cover the costs through its Currents capital campaign.
Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem is getting a major HVAC update.
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Rev. Janel Rice, pastor of congregational care and community outreach, said the campaign aligns with the church’s mission of inclusivity and working to meet the needs of the community.
“Just talking about evolving and doing things better or what the community needs are currently,” Rice said, describing the importance of considering the environment, and how church members are making a positive impact. “That Care for Creation team meets monthly, and one of their other big projects has been trying to reduce plastic waste.”
‘It's a big space’
Walking through the towering doors into the church’s sanctuary, lined on each side with large windows, it’s easy to see how controlling the indoor climate would be tricky.
“It's 60 feet wide, with a 35-foot high ceiling, and then it goes to about 100 feet if you include the balcony,” Pell said, turning his head toward the more than 3,000-pipe pipe organ situated high above the rows of parallel pews. “And then there's the rest of the building.
“So, that's a lot of volume for people who figure out air exchangers. How do you heat it? Cool it?”
The cavernous room's white walls make it feel even bigger than it actually is.
“It's a big space,” Pell said. “People say, ‘Oh, I have a heat pump in my house and why would it cost this much?’
“Well, your house isn’t this big.”
The new system is a variable refrigerant flow, or VRF. It’s energy-efficient, fully electric and will heat, cool and ventilate the sanctuary with outside air.
It’ll be high-efficiency, with 2.5-3 kW of heating/cooling for 1 kW of electricity consumed, officials said. It’s expected to yield low long-term energy costs, and minimal on-site carbon emissions.
The church already uses sustainable electricity sources. While contracted through PPL for delivery, the electricity comes from Constellation NewEnergy.
The contract notes “matching 100% of electricity usage with Green-e Certified New Mix REC’s (renewable energy certificates), generated from 100% wind source, emissions free and renewable,” according to a statement from The Stone House Group, a sustainable energy consultant that’s working with the church.
It’s a ground-breaking, unprecedented effort, said Jennifer Ceneviva, one of the campaign’s chairs, especially considering the historical value of the property.
Four gas furnaces, three at the end of their usable life, needed to be replaced, she said. Replacing them didn’t make sense given the need to eliminate dependency on fossil fuels.
Then, church leaders launched a study of indoor air contaminants in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. It confirmed the sanctuary needed active ventilation to maintain acceptable indoor air quality.
“We actually had no ventilation system,” Pell said. “We had heating. We had cooling. But there was no ventilation – there was nothing bringing in fresh air.”
‘More than just a church’
The work in the basement could be heard in the sanctuary, a consistent volley of the sounds of construction – drills, hammers, saws. The noise lifted up through the vents tucked on the sides of some pews.
“They go down to the basement and hook up to the existing ducts,” Pell said. “We'll have more of them, because we want a greater exchange of air. So, we need more of these.
“And, actually, the new vents will look more historically appropriate – these look very 20th century.”
Other than some additional vents, the look of the sanctuary won’t change, as the bulk of the work will be completed in the basement, he said. As the work is underway, it’s a balance to protect the history of the building while updating it for contemporary needs.
“We're cutting through a floor that dates from 1806,” Pell said. “I think the contractors are very aware of that.”
Next to be added are the condensers that sit outside, which officials will try to conceal with landscaping.
“Every year, I'm amazed,” Pell said. “I’ve been retired for 12 years, so already my knowledge is old. So I do understand though that they've come a long way in engineering and improving efficiency.”
Construction has dug up some surprises — old music stands, chunks of coal embedded in a wall and even boxes of crackers and a Geiger counter, used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation, from its days as a bomb shelter.
“We're going to try to preserve things that we found, because people would just place stuff down here, and we forgot what was here,” Pell said. The church’s history committee has stored them for future analysis.
Pell said he often thinks of Central as the “unofficial symbol of Bethlehem,” noting how often the belfry is used to represent the city and its downtown, where the church is situated.
“We're more than a church, and trying to make that argument that this is historic preservation, as well as community involvement,” Pell said. “That's more than just a church, although, of course, that's a primary part of why we're here.
“The founding of Bethlehem from 1741 — it was a Moravian thing for the first 100 years. You had to be Moravian to live here, and the town and the church were one in the same. So of course, that history has changed since that time, but it's still an important factor.”
