Town of Raymond: Raymond Ice Arena REALice Retrofit 

This project was funded through the Recreation Energy Conservation Program

Town of Raymond

2022Completion Year

$36,872.53Project Cost

$1,758.33 Cost Savings

$27,654.40 MCCAC Funding

5.2Simple Payback Period

11,475kWh/yearElectrical Energy Savings

77GJ/yearNatural Gas Energy Savings

10tonnes CO2e/yearGHG Reductions

Greenhouse gas emissions reductions for this project are calculated based on Alberta’s Carbon Offset Emission Factors Handbook Version 2.0

Overview 

As part of the MCCAC’s Recreation Energy Conservation (REC) program, the Town of Raymond installed a REALice system at the Raymond Ice Arena originally constructed in 1967 totalling 27,500 square feet. The building is used for skating and as a hockey arena. Other space is occupied by one lobby, five changerooms, one mezzanine, and one spectator seating area. REALice is an energy-saving de-aerating system for ice rinks. It creates a controlled and structured vortex to remove gases and other particulates such as limescale as water flows through the device. REALice-treated water eliminates the need to use heated water when building or resurfacing your ice and reduces compressor loads. The system has no moving parts and is easily integrated into existing piping systems.  

The project was commissioned in November 2022 

Approach 

This newly installed REALice system will help to reduce the costs of heating the water used to resurface the ice as well as the electricity costs associated with cooling the ice following resurfacing. This system eliminates the need for hot water when building and resurfacing ice by removing micro air bubbles from the incoming water resulting in lower natural gas consumption from water heaters and less load on compressors. 

Results 

The REALice installation resulted in a reduction of 10 tCO2/year and an energy cost saving of $1,758.33/year. The system enabled the water heater setpoint temperature to be dropped from 80 F to 50 F. The project resulted in a 10% GHG reduction from the existing system and a 5% reduction facility-wide from the baseline. 

We are very excited to receive this grant funding from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) to help fund the installation of the REALIce system in our ice arena. Not only will we benefit from great quality ice, but we will be able to reduce our operating expenses year after year, which allows us to better manage our finances.

Mayor Jim Depew

Interested?

Read more about the Recreation Energy Conservation Program