Chris Stedile
Castlegar News
Almost one year has passed since FortisBC teamed up with REALice and 10 B.C. cities, including Castlegar, in an attempt to reduce energy consumption by ice hockey arenas.
And in Castlegar the project is being considered a success.
In fact, it is so energy efficient that the Castlegar and District Community Complex ice rink decided to keep the REALice system after the pilot project had ended.
Grace Pickell, FortisBC communications advisor says that this new technology has helped the arena cut its annual gas use by 520 gigajoules. This is equivalent to the energy needed to heat about five homes per year.
In addition to the natural gas savings, the arena managed to reduce electricity consumption by 28,500 kilowatt hours.
Manager of Recreation for the Castlegar and District Recreation Department (CDRD), Jim Crockett, says the REALice program has helped save a lot of money.
“It allows us to run the ice at a higher temperature in the arena and we can run cold water to make the ice, so we’re saving on both ends.”
Crockett estimates the savings on utility costs to be around $7,000, before factoring in the reduced maintenance and upkeep costs.
Perhaps the greatest, most immediate payoff was from the pilot project itself.
“We were fortunate to be on the pilot program because the installation and equipment was free,” Crockett adds.
Having to pay for the REALice system would have resulted in a four year payback period.
While saving energy and money are great reasons to implement REALice they’re not the only ones.
According to Crockett, the new ice provides a smoother surface and allows faster movement for the puck and players as well.
The pilot project, which started in December 2013 and continued through January 2014, introduced a new way of making artificial ice.
Traditionally, an ice rink is made by heating up water — to remove any bubbles and impurities — and then pouring the water into the rink and cooling it. All of the heating and cooling requires a large amount of energy. Vector tech, the idea behind REALice, allows rinks to be created and maintained without this process.
Instead of being heated, the water is actually spun around, similar to how a tornado works.
By spinning the water all the impurities are forced out and you’re left with water that not only makes harder, higher quality ice, but is also much more energy efficient.
With the pilot being such a success and many of the participants fully adopting the REALice technology, Pickell is hopeful that more arenas will adopt it in the future.
She estimates that if every arena in B.C. — approximately 183 — were to adopt REALice the savings on natural gas would end up around 60,000 gigajoules.