Energy-Intensive and Water-Hungry Arenas: A Major Environmental Challenge
Each year, an NHL-sized rink uses up to 2.5 million liters of hot potable water to resurface the ice, equivalent to filling 900 residential swimming pools. With an average of 2,800 resurfacing passes per season, this amounts to approximately 200,000 kWh of energy and up to 36 tons of CO2 emissions if heated with natural gas. These figures highlight the significant environmental and energy impact of current operations, emphasizing the urgent need to adopt sustainable solutions to conserve resources and reduce GHG emissions.
The Three Traditional Methods for Handling Snow and Ice
Before adopting a sustainable solution, it’s important to understand the current practices:
1. Integrated Snow Melter
Used in less than 10% of arenas, this fixed system is efficient but expensive and complex to install. It is often reserved for high-end facilities.
2. Natural Melting Outdoors
Practiced by about 25% of arenas, this method works well during warmer months but becomes ineffective in winter. It incurs costs for snow removal, heat loss, and equipment wear.
3. Hot Water Melting and Draining
Used in over 50% of arenas, this simple method wastes significant amounts of water and energy, resulting in high costs.
These methods are expensive and environmentally unfriendly, highlighting the urgent need for a sustainable alternative.
Melting snow and ice: a significant waste
After each pass, the ice resurfacer collects snow and ice, which are often melted using hot potable water. For every cubic meter of snow, approximately 1,000 liters of water heated to 150°F are required, consuming 70 kWh of energy. With 1 m³ of snow collected per pass, the impact quickly adds up: up to 4.7 tons of CO2 annually with electricity and 24.4 tons with natural gas for 2,800 resurfacings. Adopting more efficient melting systems could significantly reduce these emissions while saving water and energy, contributing to more sustainable arena operations.
A simple solution for a sustainable future
Our snow melter technology offers an ecological and economical solution to reduce waste in arenas. This system collects and stores melted water in a closed circuit, filters it for purification, and reheats it using recovered heat from refrigeration equipment or a heat pump. The treated water is then reused for snow melting and resurfacing, significantly reducing the need for fresh potable water.
Measurable benefits for arenas
By adopting this system, arenas can reduce potable water consumption by 50% to 75%, save 15% to 30% in energy, and lower their ecological footprint by preserving water and reducing CO2 emissions. With a net investment of $20,000 to $25,000 (including subsidies), annual savings can reach approximately $20,000 through reduced water, energy, and labor costs. Additionally, we handle all administrative tasks related to subsidies, making the transition to sustainable arena management seamless.
Optimization through today’s means
The latest advances in the age of artificial intelligence allow Phaneuf International to offer a solution allowing energy management and optimization up to 15 to 30%, in harmony with the manufacture of ice and the comfort of the occupants, as a single ecosystem encompassing all of your facilities. This is not to mention the optimization of water consumption and the reduction of maintenance costs thanks to predictive tools allowing the reduction of your environmental footprint.
The method
To do this, energy models specific to your facilities are determined by experts using the algorithms of a specialized tool, used subsequently to process continuously, in conjunction with several fault detection rules, your energy data, your ice manufacturing parameters, as well as those of the mechanical systems in order to determine your optimal operating parameters and detect any abnormalities, then determine their causes, to identify the best actions to take to optimize your facilities, the vast majority requiring only small investments of time and money, and therefore to return very quickly.
Adapted monitoring tools
All of this information and actions are presented in dashboards accessible via all platforms and adapted according to the needs of each of the resources involved, thus enabling monitoring, optimization, management and continual maintenance of performance.
Looking forward to working together
A first analysis of the energy data and a short visit of the facilities are enough to quickly assess the potential gains, the investment possibly necessary in instrumentation and the subventions available to you
plus offer a solution that allows you to operate your facilities to their full potential at the lowest cost, supporting you with an example of social responsibility.