Measured results
What utilities and municipalities have measured
Utilities and municipalities have measured REALice in their own rinks since 2013. This page lists those measurements: who made them, how, over what period, with what result, and where the source document is.
Gas. Down 79% on average across FortisBC's ten pilot rinks; floodwater gas eliminated entirely at Uxbridge and Caledon.
Electricity. 116,000 kWh over a six-month season on Uxbridge's twin pad and 84,000 kWh on Caledon's single pad — 29–45% of the sub-metered refrigeration plant, with the brine setpoint raised the required 3–5°F. Mississauga measured 20% off its Erin Mills ice plant, alongside a controls upgrade done at the same time. A whole-building bill shows less: in Kitchener, 5% of total building energy.
Payback. About one year at Uxbridge (twin pad, on the Township's full supplied-and-installed cost) to 3.5 years at Kitchener (single pad, whole-building, before incentives).
Ice quality. Rated equal or better at all ten FortisBC rinks; Southern California Edison found the ice as hard or harder and much more uniform across the sheet; Mississauga recorded no change in ice quality for users at Erin Mills; and Alberta’s climate agency describes Slave Lake, a REALice rink, as having some of the best ice in the province.
1. Energy savings measured by utilities and municipalities
| Where | Who measured | When | Method | Result | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ten ice rinks across British Columbia | FortisBC (gas utility); report by Jermin Hsieh, P.Eng., FortisBC Energy Utilization Manager, for submission to the BC Utilities Commission | Nov 2013 – Apr 2014 | IPMVP Option A (retrofit isolation). Data loggers on floodwater volume, temperature and level at all ten rinks. | Floodwater gas down 79% (average per rink from 418 to 87 GJ a year, 330 GJ saved). Slab temperature up 3°F on average. The report also calculated, rather than metered, the refrigeration load removed with the hot floods; that is one part of the electricity saving and is not listed here as a measured result. FortisBC has paid a point-of-sale rebate on rink de-aerators since 2019. | FortisBC M&V report, Sept 2014 (PDF) |
| Township of Uxbridge, twin pad arena, ON | Elexicon Energy (Envision program); Township of Uxbridge staff report PR-12/23 to Council | Oct 2022 – Apr 2023 | Sub-metering of the three compressors, brine and condenser pumps and condenser fans; floodwater gas from utility data. Six comparable months; January excluded because the baseline January fell in a Covid closure. | $24,460 saved Oct 2022 – Apr 2023; payback just over 12 months on the full supplied-and-installed cost. Floodwater gas to zero: 13,935 m³ eliminated ($6,967). Electricity from 394,158 to 278,011 kWh, down 116,147 kWh (29.5%). Elexicon recorded 4.9 t CO2 avoided in the month of April 2023 alone. | Township report PR-12/23 (PDF) Energy Savings Report, April 2023 (PDF) |
| Town of Caledon, Mayfield Recreation Complex, ON | Internat Energy Solutions Canada, for the Town of Caledon | Annual figures | Measurement and verification study | Electricity down 45% (from 186,677 to 102,489 kWh a year, 84,188 kWh saved); floodwater gas from 2,800 m³ to zero; about $10,775 a year; 6,972 kg CO2. | Caledon results |
| City of Mississauga, Erin Mills Twin Arena, ON | Energy Management group, Facilities & Property Management, City of Mississauga | 2018 | Real-time ice plant data for March, April, August, September and October 2018 against the same months the year before. Two measures were carried out together: new ice plant controls with variable frequency drives on the brine pumps, and cold water resurfacing. | Daily ice plant electricity down 20%; electrical demand down 37.5 kW. Estimated annual saving about $17,300, with $26,000 in incentives received, and payback on the optimisations of two years. The City reported the result “with no change in the ice quality for the users.” | Successful Energy Projects at Erin Mills Twin Arena (PDF) |
| City of Kitchener, Sportsworld Arena, ON | City of Kitchener | 12-month pilot | Whole-building utility data, not sub-metered, so the result includes everything else in the building. Operator, coach and skater feedback on ice quality. | Total building energy down 5%; about 14 t CO2 a year; payback about 3.5 years before incentives. Floodwater from 65.6°C to 17.5°C. The City then converted its other arenas. | Webinar with City staff City of Kitchener business case (video) |
Figures are as reported by the measuring organisation. At Erin Mills the controls upgrade and the cold water resurfacing were installed together, so the 20% is the pair rather than cold water alone. We think that is the point rather than a caveat: cold water resurfacing is what lets a plant hold a higher brine setpoint, and controls that can actually hold it are what turn that into a saving.
2. Why the numbers vary so much
Gas depends on how much water the rink floods with and how it heated that water before. FortisBC's ten rinks averaged 330 GJ a year per pad; Uxbridge eliminated 13,935 m³ across a twin pad from October to April, about 520 GJ, or roughly 260 GJ per pad over those months.
Electricity comes from two things. The heat that no longer goes into the slab — a 160°F flood puts far more in than a 120°F one, so a rink that already flooded cool saves less — and the brine setpoint, which has to come up 3–5°F because de-aerated water freezes harder and denser. The setpoint is the larger of the two in most rinks, and it is required, not optional: left where it was, the ice is too hard and chips, and most of the saving never appears.
What was metered decides the percentage, not the saving. A sub-metered plant shows a large one; a whole-building bill, as in Kitchener, shows a small one because lighting, dehumidification and the rest of the building dilute it. Our free rink savings estimate predicts the refrigeration-plant saving, not the whole-building bill.
3. Ice quality
| Where | Who assessed | When | Method | Finding | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel Islands Ice Center, Oxnard, California | Southern California Edison | 2010 | Schmidt-hammer rebound hardness before and after, both pads | Ice as hard or harder on both pads after the change; uniformity of ice strength across the sheet much better. | SCE ice quality testing (PDF) |
| Ten ice rinks, British Columbia | FortisBC pilot, operator ratings | 2013–2014 season | Operator assessment at each rink | Ice quality equal or better at all ten rinks (operator ratings from acceptable to excellent); ice carried 0.25–0.5 inch thinner. 90% of crews adapted their routine to the new water. "They've been really impressed with the quality of the ice, as well as the great energy savings." — Marilyn Christensen, FortisBC energy solutions manager, 2019 | FortisBC M&V report (PDF) |
| City of Mississauga, Erin Mills Twin Arena, ON | Energy Management group, City of Mississauga | 2018 | User feedback alongside the ice plant data, after the brine setpoint was raised | The City recorded the electricity and demand savings “with no change in the ice quality for the users” — in its own words, in its own report. | Successful Energy Projects at Erin Mills Twin Arena (PDF) |
| City of Kitchener, Sportsworld Arena, ON | City of Kitchener | 12-month pilot | Operator, coach and skater feedback; skate-shop records | Skate-sharpening interval doubled from 5 to 10 hours of ice time. | Webinar with City staff |
| Multi-Rec Centre, Slave Lake, Alberta | Municipal Climate Change Action Centre, a Government of Alberta funding programme | 2024–25 | Case study published by the funding agency after the project | The agency calls the arena “known for having some of Alberta’s best ice”: hard, durable and fast surfaces that set quickly after each flood and withstand heavy tournament use. REALice is credited with creating “a flawless, glassy surface”. | Case study (PDF) |
| Servus Credit Union Place, City of St. Albert, Alberta | Municipal Climate Change Action Centre | 2021 | Success story and case study published by the funding agency | Flooding with 4°C water instead of 52°C reduces the load on the compressors and allows the brine temperature to warm several degrees, “all while maintaining ice quality”. | REALice retrofit story Energy specialist case study (PDF) |
| Kunsteisbahn Oerlikon, Zurich, Switzerland | Andreas Schnyder, operations management, KEB Oerlikon | Aug–Nov 2020 | Plant energy log during ice build-in, compared with the previous year on days with similar outside temperature | Harder, denser ice with fewer gouges; energy for building the ice 13–16% lower on comparable days, up to 37% on matched days. The author notes the test phase was too short to establish the full savings. | Report (PDF) |
| Laboratory, Sweden | Imaging at Luleå University of Technology; report written by Watreco (Johan Kronholm) | 2011 | Treated and untreated water from the same supply frozen side by side; thin sections under cross-polarised light | Larger, more even crystals in the treated sample. Manufacturer report, listed for completeness, not as independent verification. | Report (PDF) |
4. What changes in the water
| Study | By | When | Finding | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical properties of treated water | Polymer Technology Group Eindhoven (PTG/e), Eindhoven University of Technology; summary published by Watreco | 2010–2011 | Treated water was less viscous in every batch tested (3% to 17% lower, depending on the source water and how recently it was treated) and carried heat about 5% better. Conductivity 3% higher; surface tension unchanged. | Summary (PDF) |
| Laboratory verification of treated-water properties | University of Massachusetts | 2026 | Under way. Results will be published here when available. |
5. Utilities that support it
| Where | Utility | When | What they reported | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| George Bell Arena, City of Toronto, ON | Enbridge Gas (Energy Leaders program) | Installed Dec 2016 | Enbridge paid a $17,440 incentive, half the technology cost, on an estimated 14,366 m³ of gas a year (about 21% of the building's gas) and 53,320 kWh a year. | Enbridge case study (PDF) |
| British Columbia | FortisBC | Since 2019 | Point-of-sale rebate on rink de-aerators following the 2014 pilot. In FortisBC's own story, the City of Chilliwack, then running three rinks on REALice, reported that its compressors ran 9,000 fewer hours in a year and that cracking on its sand-based floor had stopped after the switch. | FortisBC story, 13 Dec 2019 (archived copy) FortisBC video on the pilot |
| Exeter, Dover and North Atlantic Hockey Group, New Hampshire | Unitil (electric and gas) | 2021 | Rebates covered more than a third of project cost. Compressor run time down about 50% at Exeter (three compressors from about 19 hours a day each). | Unitil case study |
| Twin Rinks, Tacoma, Washington | Tacoma Power (co-funded the system) | 2018 | Rink reports 15–20% less energy, about US$12,000 a year. | Tacoma Power video |
BC Hydro, Save on Energy (IESO), Enbridge Gas, SaskPower and the Alberta Municipal Climate Change Action Centre have paid custom or prescriptive incentives for REALice installations after reviewing the savings calculations for each project.
6. Long-term use
Two facilities have written up five years of operation: Fuller Lake Arena, BC (Fred Kilner, facility supervisor) and Spartan Arena, Castleton University, Vermont (Steve Wolf). Operator testimonials and media coverage are on separate pages.
7. Recognised as a net-zero measure
| Study | By | When | Finding | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roadmap to net-zero ice rinks, nine Ontario arenas | Mayors' Megawatt Challenge, with Enerlife Consulting | 2023 | Cold-water resurfacing counted as a high-impact retrofit: about 21.7 t CO2e per ice pad per year in Ontario, 13% of the reductions a typical arena needs to reach net zero. | Summary and webinar |
| Taking your indoor ice rink to net zero | Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Green Municipal Fund | — | Guidebook from the nine-rink pilot; resurfacing accounts for about 17% of an arena's CO2 emissions. | FCM guide (PDF) |
8. Funded as a standard measure in Alberta
Alberta's Municipal Climate Change Action Centre published case studies on four municipalities that installed REALice with its rebates, naming it alongside LED lighting, variable frequency drives, heat recovery, roof insulation and solar. Where REALice went in as part of a wider retrofit, the headline savings belong to the package and are labelled as such below; the figures are as the agency reported them.
| Where | Programme | When | What the agency reported | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Servus Credit Union Place, City of St. Albert, AB | Recreation Energy Conservation | Commissioned Feb 2021 | REALice reported on its own: project cost $39,030, rebate $28,025.57, and annual savings of 82,870 kWh, 673 GJ, $11,044.43 and 80 t CO2e — a one-year simple payback. The water heater setpoint came down from 125°F to 40°F. Across the City's wider programme (REALice, variable frequency drives, LED lighting and a 1.1 MW solar array) the four projects together saved 1,160 t CO2 and $198,585 a year. As of 2022 the City planned a second REALice system. | REALice retrofit story Energy specialist case study (PDF) |
| Multi-Rec Centre, Slave Lake, AB | Community Energy Conservation | 2024–25 | REALice reported on its own: rebate $26,700, yearly savings $7,900, at a facility running 1.2 million kWh and nearly 11,000 GJ a year at about $113,000 in utilities. $95,000 of funding supported $165,000 of upgrades across five projects. | Case study (PDF) |
| JDA Place, Town of Whitecourt, AB | Community Energy Conservation | 2021–24 | $881,100 of funding toward $1,321,200 of upgrades across three projects: the McLeod Arena roof from R-5 to R-20, a new 150-ton low-charge ammonia ice plant, and REALice to remove the hot flood and cut the load on the new plant. About $76,000 a year in utility savings — all three projects together. | Case study (PDF) |
| Scott Seaman Sports Rink, Foothills County, AB | Community Energy Conservation and Municipal Electricity Generation | 2024–25 | $730,000 from the agency and $1,173,000 federally across nine retrofits, including combined heat and power, solar, heat recovery, an electric resurfacer and REALice. The agency's verdict: “one of the most energy efficient arenas in Alberta, if not Canada”, with about $104,000 a year and roughly 50% lower emissions against 2019 — all nine projects together — alongside improved ice quality and occupant comfort with reduced maintenance. | Case study (PDF) |
Last updated November 2026. If your utility or municipality has measured REALice and is not listed here, send us the report and we will add it.