St. Albert Akinsdale and Kinex Arena Retrofits

The City of St. Albert’s Akinsdale and Kinex arenas were retrofitted in 2013, with energy conservation measures focused on their heating and automation systems.

Before the retrofit, snow was melted by directly applying 120ºF water to the melt pit. A heat recovery coil was since installed to capture the waste heat generated from cooling the ice to melt the snow. The existing atmospheric combustion boiler used to heat the water was also replaced with a condensing boiler, increasing its efficiency from 65% to 92%. Additionally, the hot deck set point temperature was reduced from 8ºC to 2ºC, which will reduce the ice plant’s run time by 30%. The $63,650 project will pay itself back in only 2.6 years, with annual savings of $14,629, 1,520 GJ in energy, and 115 tonnes of emissions.