27 Oct Lower Your Ice Rink’s Carbon Footprint: 5 Strategies | REALice Canada
Lower the rink's carbon footprint
For arenas burning natural gas to heat water, the combination of rising fuel costs and carbon taxes is becoming a question about affordable ice time, not just emissions. Over a ten-year horizon it affects what a municipality can charge and what it can offer. These are the five changes that move the number most.
1Take the micro air bubbles out of the floodwater
Floodwater is heated mainly to drive the air out of it. A rink de-aerator removes those micro air bubbles mechanically instead, using line pressure, so the flood goes down cold and the water heating for it stops almost entirely.
The FortisBC ice rink resurfacing efficiency pilot measured a 79% reduction in floodwater natural gas across its ten rinks, averaging 330 GJ each. A study by Enerlife Consulting for the Mayors' Megawatt Challenge found that 13% of a rink's carbon emissions can be eliminated through cold-water resurfacing technology.
There's a second effect on the electrical side. Cold floods put far less heat into the slab, and the ice is harder to begin with, so the rink can hold a warmer brine set point; across our installations that has been worth a further 10–12% of refrigeration energy, with independently metered rinks saving more. Depending on how your province generates electricity, the total comes to 18–50 tonnes of CO2 per sheet per year. How de-aeration works →
2Switch to on-demand water heaters
Tankless heaters are 24–34% more efficient than storage-tank units, because they only produce heat while it's being drawn and shut off when it isn't. No standby loss, no heat lost from water sitting in a tank or cooling in long pipe runs, and they take up less space.
They become practical in an arena once floodwater no longer needs heating: the demand for stored hot water drops to what's needed around the fill station and for maintenance tasks, which is exactly what a tankless unit is good at.
3Insulate the hot water pipes
Insulating hot water pipes raises delivered water temperature by 2–4°F compared with bare pipe and cuts heat loss by up to a third. That lets you lower the boiler setting for the same result, and hot water reaches faucets and showers faster, which saves water as well as gas.
4Raise the efficiency of the water heaters themselves
High-efficiency units cut gas or electricity use directly. It matters most where hot water is genuinely needed: dressing room showers, especially where sensor taps are already limiting waste.
5Reclaim the waste heat from your refrigeration system
A heat reclaim system captures heat from the chiller, which is otherwise rejected to outside, and puts it to work: space heating, domestic hot water, subfloor and slab heating, snow melting, or pre-heating resurfacing water. Most of it comes off the refrigeration condenser, and some can be taken from the building's exhaust air. It's free energy you're currently paying to throw away.
Two more worth doing
Automatic water fill shut-off
An ice resurfacer left filling unattended overflows, wasting water and, if the water is hot, gas with it. An automatic fill system stops it happening and costs very little.
Timers on the bleacher heaters
Overhead bleacher heaters are still common and often run all day, sometimes overnight. Removing them may not be an option, but putting them on timers or coin operation makes a real difference to gas use, and nobody misses heat above empty seats.
More from the Ice Academy: 20 ways to reduce ice rink costs · energy use in ice arenas · funding and rebates by province
