04 May No hot water at the fill station!
We recently visited Scott Fusco and John O’Neill at The Edge Sports Center in Bedford, MA. You may have heard of Scott Fusco: he played on two US-Olympic hockey teams, is a Hobey Baker Award Winner, a Harvard grad, and a successful businessman. John O’Neill is a seasoned facility manager, having joined the team at The Edge last year.
COLD TURKEY
John came into The Edge without any prior REALice knowledge. He says he was nervous when he found out they were using treated cold water to maintain the ice.
He also says that if his owner had come to him and said they’d be going to cold floodwater technology, he would have said “NO”. However, after using REALice, he’s impressed with the ice and how easily it sets up.
He’s even found that by using cold water to maintain the ice, they avoid grey ice due to paint migration compared to what he used to get with hot water floods.
Scott talks about the business side, saying that, unlike other energy-efficient initiatives like low-e ceilings, REALice is one of the easiest energy-saving initiatives to quantify. He’s seen it with a big-time reduction in his run-time hours – 20-25% less than what they had when they still did the ice with water heated to 140°F.
