Village Hall

Sticker Village Hall is available for hire on an hourly or daily basis and the hire charge is fully inclusive of lighting and central heating.   The hall can seat an audience of 100 with up to a further 40 people on stage, backstage etc.
The stage area is equipped with new stage lighting with control deck but if this is required, it needs to be arranged in advance.   As well as the main hall there is a committee room, changing room, kitchen with water heaters, kettle, oven, crockery etc.   There are ladies and gents toilets and a disabled toilet with baby changing facility.   The hall has wheelchair access.
                                          All this for £6.00 per hour or £30 per day.

To book the hall please contact David Eastlake at david_eastlake@sky.com - but please Email from your own Email program, because for some reason this direct link does not work!    Alternatively - telephone on 01726 76003

Hall heating using renewable energy

The annual service of the village hall gas boiler resulted in it being condemned due to corrosion of the burner chamber.

This boiler replaced the old oil fired boiler 14 years ago (funded by the National Lottery) and with the current life span of gas boilers being only 10 years it had done its bit in keeping hall visitors warm.

Whilst investigating replacements, it became obvious that modern boilers would not work efficiently with the old cast iron radiator system and the whole system would need to be replaced – a costly exercise. Following the Village Players Summer Show in the hall last year when the audience sweltered – provision of air conditioning was investigated but the cost of installing could not be justified. However it was pointed out at the time that some air conditioning units could also operate as a heating source.

This now seemed an ideal opportunity to join the "green" micro-generation age and install a heating system using renewable energy sources. Delving deeper into – what is a highly technical subject – it was felt that an air to air heat exchanger system would provide a suitable environment. The system works by drawing air (free!) from outside, compressing it and routing it through a heat exchanger and pumping the resulting hot air into the hall. Conversely, if the temperature became too high during stage shows, the unit would automatically reverse and act as an air conditioner – pumping cool air into the hall. The system works even using air as low as minus 15 degrees Centigrade.

Whilst the air supply is free, some energy is needed to power the compressor and fans – this comes from the electricity supply. The great advantage of this system is that for every 1KW of electricity used the system generates in theory the equivalent of up to 5KW of heat although in practice this is more likely to be between 3.5 and 4KW. These figures led to a lot of discussion, with disbelief by many who considered it to be impossible – "you can’t get something for nothing".    At first glance it seems impossible to get heat from a minus temperature – but of course absolute zero is actually minus 273 degrees centigrade ( - 459 Fahrenheit), so even at 0 degrees C there is 273 degrees of potential heat!

Unfortunately this heating system is in its infancy in the UK and we were unable to locate any operating here in Cornwall to check whether it works in practice. After much discussion however, it was decided to take the plunge and go ahead with installing the air to air system and the large unit for the main hall was installed at the beginning of November.  The results from this installation will be collated and if it is as successful in practice as in theory, a further smaller unit will be installed in the committee room later - after we have managed to raise the necessary funds. The first unit has been funded by Village Hall funds, Sticker Village Players, The Debonaires and The Big Lottery Fund (we were allowed to use the under spend on the tiered seating system).

Initial electricity consumption readings indicate our annual running costs will be around one quarter to one third of the annual gas bill relating to the old heating system. In addition, installation was considerably cheaper than putting in a new radiator system – so a win/win situation!

We are also now looking into a PV (photo voltaic) system for the south facing roof – this could then supply the electricity to run most of  the needs of the hall – reducing the heating costs to nil!   Of course these PV systems are not cheap – so we will be searching for additional grants to fund this too. Whilst grants for domestic installations are relatively easy to obtain, grants for commercial properties are few and far between. They also take a long time to process - so don't hold your breath waiting for the announcement that " Sticker Village Hall has installed a PV micro generation scheme"   An additional bonus with the PV system is that the Government are guaranteeing a feed in tariff (FIT) for all the electricity produced for the next 25 years. 

If anyone is looking for cast iron radiators – get in touch!

Unfortunately despite completing several extremely complicated grant application forms we were not successfuland have had to abandon the PV project.   However, thanks to a grant of £500 from the Co-operative Membership Community Fund and to £1000 from Cornwall Council we have now installed the second and final heating system in the committee room.

Big Lottery Fund Grant for Village Hall

For several years Sticker Village Association has been trying to get funding from the National Lottery to install a removable tiered seating system in the village hall.

Earlier this year, a fortuitous seating arrangement at lunch during an unrelated conference at the Eden Project, allowed in depth interrogation of a representative from National Lottery who was a sitting target trapped in her seat.    Resulting from this conversation and her suggestions, a further application was made in March supported by a petition signed by Sticker residents.    During pantomime week in February, over 200 signatures were obtained from audiences in the hall together with support from the Cornwall Drama Association.    On this occasion the application moved forward one step to the short list – and after submission of additional documentation the project was finally approved in June 2010 with  funding being awarded from The Big Lottery Fund.

This will allow approximately 40% of the seats in the hall to be tiered.    Demonstrations by two suppliers will take place during July and the successful supplier will provide the system later in the summer.

Thanks go to all those who took the trouble to sign the petition (and of course – The Big Lottery Fund).

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