Falling In Love With Your Ice
Wayne Bacon is Lead Hand at the Multi Rec Centre in Slave Lake, a busy twin pad a couple of hours north of Edmonton, AB. Until a month ago, Wayne had been maintaining the ice the "traditional" way - flooding with extremely hot water each time a user group exits the ice. And keeping the ice at very low temperature to get that hot water to freeze quickly.
That was the way he'd done the ice for the past 35 years. But he's not doing that anymore.
Since July 1, 2022, Bacon and his team have been using the REALice floodwater system, a cold water alternative to those "traditional" hot water floods. Instead of using heat to remove the micro air bubbles that are present in the water, this 3D-printed system uses water pressure so cold water can be used instead of hot. The resulting ice is clear, hard and dense, and needs to run at warmer brine/glycol temperatures than before because the REALice-treated water freezes so much faster. REALice lowers the viscosity and increases the density of the water, with better heat transfer properties than its hot water cousin.
Savings
This results in lower energy costs. The operators don't need to heat the water to extremely hot temperatures anymore to make high quality ice. At this arena, that means lowering the natural gas spend. And by needing to run the ice warmer, the compressors rack up lower run times. That saves electricity.
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Wayne doesn't know what the energy savings are just yet, but when the calculations were done back in 2021 it was estimated they'd save 570 GJ of natural gas and just over 90,000 kWh every year by abandoning hot water floods for REALice. He knows the run times are down on his compressors. The first few days running with REALice ice, he made a "B" line to the plant room to make sure it was working because he didn't hear that familiar hum of compressors when he walked into the building.
In Love With His Ice
Wayne will tell you that they've always had good ice in Slave Lake, but this ice isn't good, it's excellent. And he's so thrilled about how shiny and slippery his ice is that he's in love with it. You can hear what he has to say -- and why the REALice ice is the talk of the town, here:
And if you'd like to know more about REALice and the savings it will bring year after year, contact me.