04 Dec Tacoma Twin Rinks Orders REALice
December 4, 2017 – Tacoma Twin Rinks LLC, the operator of Tacoma Twin Rinks in Tacoma, WA, has ordered a REALice System for its indoor ice facility. With its installation, expected before the end of the first week of December, the Tacoma Twin Rinks will become the first arena in the State of Washington to be flooding their ice with REALice. By using REALice and cold water, the Tacoma Twin Rinks is expected to reduce their annual energy spend by 150,000 kWh.
“I’m excited to have better quality ice and save energy,” says Tacoma Twin Rinks’ General Manager, Rob Kaufman.
According to Kaufman, it was his wife, Twin Rinks co-owner and Pacific Division USA Hockey Director, Donna Kaufman, who first saw REALice. While at a hockey tournament at Ice in Paradise in Goleta, CA earlier this year, she was impressed with how the ice looked and felt, and asked about it. Arena manager Larry Bruyere took Kaufmann on a tour and explained how they were using REALice to flood with cold water, producing a better quality ice surface and saving energy at the same time.
Tacoma Power has analyzed the projected savings and has offered an incentive of $.20/kWh saved in the first year to adopt the technology.
“We’re excited that REALice has found its way to the Pacific Northwest,” says Tom Smolarek, the President of Cypress, Ltd., an energy advisory company headquartered in California. “We’re also impressed that the ice quality at REALice arenas is outstanding and it’s easy to see that something different is going on with ice made with REALice. When others go to Tacoma and see the ice quality at the Tacoma Twin Rinks, and understand the energy consumption reduction they’ll get by using cold water, more arenas will follow suit.”
ABOUT TACOMA TWIN RINKS
Tacoma Twin Rinks is the home to the Tacoma Junior Hockey Association, the Pacific Northwest Amateur Hockey Association, the Puget Sound Amateur Hockey Association as well as Puget Sound Speed Skating. The Tacoma Twin Rinks, when fully operational, will resurface an average of 8 times per pad per day, operating year round, with a 2nd floor mezzanine viewing area onto the rinks. The REALice feature of clear ice will be one if the most noticeable improvements.
ABOUT CYPRESS LTD.
Established in 1990, Cypress Ltd. delivers efficiency, demand response, technical and business technology assessments and 24/7 customer support services.
We support:
- Investor and municipal owned utilities, associations, and special utility districts
- The commercial, industrial, institutional/government, education customer markets
- Energy value chain participants such as technology manufacturers, distributors, contractors and the engineering design community
Tom Smolarek, President
Cypress Ltd.
380 N. San Jacinto Street
Hemet, CA 92545
Email: support@realice.us
Toll free: (844) 464-8408