Savings with REALice
What a rink saves with REALice
Heating floodwater is one of the largest single energy loads in an arena, and with REALice it goes away entirely: you flood with cold treated water. The refrigeration plant then has less heat to pull out of the sheet, so electricity drops too. Below are the numbers a typical rink can expect, the reasons they go up or down, and the independent studies that measured them.
Baseline: a single-pad rink on a normal season
Eight-month season · about 10 floods a day · 160 gal per flood · brine reset 3–5°F warmer
CO2 depends on your province's grid: far higher in Saskatchewan and Alberta than in BC, Quebec or Ontario. Electricity savings of 10–12% are our typical planning figure across installations; the rinks that have been independently metered saved 25% to 45%.
For Ontario specifically, the Mayors' Megawatt Challenge roadmap puts cold-water resurfacing at 21.7 tonnes of CO2 per ice pad per year, and classes it as a high-impact measure on the path to net zero. The net zero evidence →
Savings go up with
- A twin pad on a single water feed
- Year-round ice
- More floods: 10 to 12 a day
- A full 5°F brine reset
- Colder incoming water and higher utility rates
Savings go down with
- A short season: six months or less
- Fewer floods: six a day or fewer
- A cautious 3°F brine reset
- Warm incoming water and low utility rates
One rink, measured: Uxbridge Arena, Ontario
A busy seasonal twin pad, REALice installed for the 2022–23 season. Elexicon's Envision program metered the energy; the Township reported the result to its council.
"This level of savings is on track, if not better, for Elexicon's annual estimated savings for our facility."
Township of Uxbridge, report PR-12/23 to the Parks, Facilities and Tourism CommitteeThe town's report (PDF) → · Elexicon's case study (PDF) → · The full story →
Why the percentages differ from rink to rink
You'll see figures on this page from 21% to 100% for natural gas. Both are right; they measure different things.
Floodwater gas: 100%. REALice removes the need to heat floodwater completely. If your water heater only served the resurfacer, that gas is gone.
Whole-building gas: a share. Most arenas also burn gas for dehumidifiers, bleacher and lobby heat, and tempered water elsewhere in the resurfacer bay. Against the whole bill, floodwater is one line, so the percentage is lower even though the saving in GJ is the same.
The same applies to electricity: how much the plant saves depends on how far you raise the brine set point, how many hours of ice you run, and what the compressors were doing before.
What moves the number
- Season length. Eight months is typical; year-round ice roughly doubles the hours.
- Single or twin pad. A twin pad on one feed saves nearly twice the gas for one system.
- Floods per day. Every flood is 150–160 gallons that no longer needs heating.
- Brine reset. 3°F to 5°F warmer is a big spread; each degree is compressor hours saved.
- Incoming water temperature. The colder the supply, the more heating was being done before.
- Utility rates. The energy saved is the same; the dollars depend on what you pay.
What independent studies measured
Four rinks, four verifiers. Three were metered before and after; one was modelled by the utility. Each is labelled so you can weigh it accordingly.
| Rink | Verified by | Type | Natural gas | Electricity | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 rinks, British Columbia Full season, 2014 |
FortisBC pilot | Measured | 79% of floodwater gas; 330 GJ per pad on average | Not quantified in the pilot | — |
| Mayfield Recreation Complex, Caledon ON Single pad, annual |
Internat Energy Solutions (M&V) | Measured | 2,800 m³ eliminated (floodwater only) | 84,188 kWh (45%) | $10,775 a year |
| Uxbridge Arena, ON Twin pad, Oct–Apr |
Elexicon (M&V) | Measured | Floodwater gas eliminated: 13,935 m³ over six months | 116,147 kWh (29.5%), over six comparable months | $24,460 over seven months (Township of Uxbridge) |
| George Bell Arena, Toronto ON Single pad, year-round |
Enbridge Gas | Modelled | 14,366 m³ a year, about 21% of the whole building's gas | 53,320 kWh | — |
Measured: metered utility data before and after installation, verified by the utility or a third-party M&V firm. Modelled: calculated by the utility from the rink's operating data and average weather; Enbridge notes actual savings vary with conditions.
Want the numbers for your rink? Give us your season, floods per day and utility rates and we'll prepare an estimate, and tell you which incentives apply.
Get a free rink estimatePayback
Payback depends on three things: what you save in energy, what your utility pays toward the system, and what you'd otherwise have spent. In Ontario, Enbridge Gas rebates the gas savings and Save on Energy rebates the electricity, and the two can be combined; in BC, FortisBC and Pacific Northern Gas pay a flat amount per system.
We work out all three for your rink before you commit, so the number you take to council is yours rather than someone else's average.
How to measure your own savings
- Compare utility bills before and after, season to season: GJ or m³ of gas, kWh of electricity.
- Log compressor run hours and compare with previous logs.
- For a clean number, sub-meter the compressors and the water heater; an electricity monitor such as Eyedro makes this simple.
Go deeper
- Natural gas savingsHow floodwater heating works, what it costs, and what REALice replaces.
- Electricity savingsBrine set points, compressor load and the Uxbridge and Caledon studies in detail.
- Enbridge Gas case study: George Bell Arena (PDF)The utility's own write-up of a Toronto installation.
- Utility verifiedAll the pilots, M&V reports and studies in one place.
See how much your rink could save
REALice is already running in 200+ rinks across North America. We help you with the funding applications.
Get your free savings estimate