| New heating system to be installed at East Bethel Ice Arena |
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| Tuesday, 22 September 2009 | ||
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Staff writer A new heating system recently installed at the East Bethel Ice Arena will give the hockey crowd and others using the seating area a warmer reprieve from the outside elements than the old system did.
According to a staff report, the most heard complaint from any visitor or user of the facility is that the bleacher area is cold. The design of the system was based on a different bleacher configuration and the system has not functioned properly from the beginning, according to the staff report. City Administrator Douglas Sell said the old heating system was installed when the ice arena was constructed in the early 1990s. Sell was not with the city of East Bethel at the time, but it is his understanding that the seating area design was changed after the heating system was installed and that affected the effectiveness of the heating system. A power ventilator fan could have been installed, but never was, Sell said. This ventilation would have removed the corrosive gases after the system heat cycle ended. According to the staff report, the heating tubes have deteriorated where the flame is exposed through the heat tubes and the carbon monoxide emitted from operation of the heating system is greater than permitted. About seven years ago, the city was cited by the Minnesota Department of Health for excessive carbon monoxide in the facility when the Zamboni is running. The exhaust system that operates the vent on the roof at the west end of the ice arena and the power vent on the east wall of the arena has been inoperable for more than a year, so the arena exceeds the carbon monoxide levels regularly because of the inoperable exhaust system. In the meantime, the arena staff has opened the overhead door on the east end of the arena when operating the Zamboni, but this results in a heat loss inside the arena. The new heating system is designed to be 82 percent efficient compared with the current system that has an efficiency rating of less than 30 percent, according to the staff report. Natural gas costs for the ice arena have averaged $20,918 each season for the past three years. The new system could result in per season costs of between $17,000 and $17,500. The price of the new system would be recouped in energy savings over the next 6.5 to 7 years. City inspectors will and have checked the heating system for continued compliance, Sell said. The $31,198 to pay for the new ice arena heating system will come from the arena’s enterprise funds. For the 2008-09 season, the arena had a positive cash flow of more than $48,000. Over the past three years, the cash flow has improved by nearly $203,000. According to Sell, the ice arena now has a negative cash position of $297,000 after factoring in that improvement. The council has established a goal to reduce the negative cash position over a 10-year period, by increasing ice rentals and installing more energy efficient systems. Eric Hagen is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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