Furnace Upgrades – City of Grande Prairie

Overview

The Grande Prairie Curling Centre is a hub for winter recreation and community gatherings in the City of Grande Prairie. Serving curlers, families, and event attendees alike, the facility plays an important role in the region’s social and recreational landscape. By 2025, the facility’s six original furnaces had aged significantly and were operating below modern efficiency standards, leading to higher-than-necessary energy consumption and operating costs. With support from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre’s Community Energy Conservation Program, the City replaced all six aging units with high-efficiency 96% AFUE furnaces, improving heating performance, reducing energy use, and lowering the facility’s carbon footprint.

Approach

The City of Grande Prairie secured $23,975 in MCCAC funding to help cover the $47,950 project cost. Six high-efficiency furnaces rated at 96% efficiency were installed throughout the Grande Prairie Curling Centre, replacing the existing units that had reached the end of their useful service life. The project was carefully scheduled to minimize disruption to the Centre’s operations and curling season activities. The focus was on maximizing long-term energy and cost savings while maintaining a comfortable environment for curlers and visitors.

Results

The new high-efficiency furnaces are expected to save the City of Grande Prairie approximately $2,191 in energy costs each year, reducing natural gas consumption by 201 GJ annually and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 10 tonnes of CO₂e per year. Over the 18-year expected useful life of the equipment, the project will prevent an estimated 184 tonnes of CO₂e from entering the atmosphere. With these upgrades, the Grande Prairie Curling Centre will remain a warm, welcoming, and energy-efficient facility for the community for years to come. The upgrades are expected to reduce facility-wide emissions by 2.4%.

“Investing in our community facilities is about more than upgrading equipment. It is about making sure the places people gather and connect continue to serve Grande Prairie well into the future. By taking a proactive approach to energy efficiency, we are finding practical ways to manage costs responsibly and keep well-used spaces like the Curling Centre in great shape for our community.”

Jackie Clayton, City of Grande Prairie Mayor