21 Sep REALice System Installed for Kimball Union Academy Retrofit
For immediate release – Tom Smolarek, President of Cypress Ltd., a US-based energy advisory firm headquartered in California, is pleased to announce that Preferred Mechanical Services, a Massachusetts-based merit shop HVAC contractor/service firm has purchased a REALice System for an arena retrofit it has been contracted to install for the Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire.
The 213-year-old Kimball Union Academy is an independent, private preparatory boarding school, the 22nd oldest boarding school in the United States. Its Whittemore Athleic Center houses the Akerstrom Ice Arena, the home of the KUA Panthers hockey teams.
The mechanical facelift for this 25-year-old arena, began at the end of the 2015-16 school year and is now in its final phase of construction. This extensive retrofit has included the removal of the direct expansion R22 cold floor and plant as well as the removal of a reverse osmosis water treatment system which was found to be caustic. In addition, the dasherboards have been demounted and are being modified.
In their place, a new ICE3 plant, manufactured by New Hampshire-based Emerald Environmental Technologies, has been installed, featuring a warm floor, interior snowmelt coil and bunker-style snow pit. The ICE3 plant will provide reclaim heat which will be used for the Arid Ice Desiccant Dehumidifier (from Controlled Dehumidification IMS of Brighton, MI), and will provide cooling for arena as well. A new concrete cold floor and warm floor have been installed. The entire facility will have a digital control system installed. To complete the project, reclaim of warm energy for ice-making coupled to a REALice cold water treatment system for ice making is being installed. The plan is to have a system equal to or exceed the past direct expansion system.
The schedule has ice building operations starting on September 22nd, with turnover to customer no later than October 1st.
“We’re excited that Preferred Mechanical Services is implementing a REALice System into the Kimball Union Academy’s arena. The long term savings of REALice, replacing the need to use extremely hot water to make great ice, will be significant,” Smolarek says. “This is the second REALice installation that Preferred Mechanical Services has been involved with, the first being the highly successful Keene ICE installation in Keene, NH.”
About Cypress Ltd.
Established in 1990, Cypress Ltd. delivers efficiency, demand response, technical and business technology assessments and customer support services.
We support:
- Investor and municipal owned utility associations, and special utility districts
- The commercial, industrial, institution/government, education and residential customer markets
- Energy value chain participants such as manufacturers, distributors, contractors and the technical design community
Tom Smolarek, President
Cypress Ltd.
380 N. San Jacinto Street
Hemet, CA 92545
Email: support@realice.us
Toll free: (844) 464-8408