EasyCHILL energy management for ice rinks — control the load, not just the chiller

Ice-rink refrigeration load is never constant. Weather, opening hours, resurfacing, skater numbers, indoor humidity and the required ice temperature all change the amount of cooling the rink needs. A plant that runs with one conservative setting around the clock can therefore spend many hours delivering more refrigeration than necessary.

AST EasyCHILL adds monitoring, alarm functions and demand-based control to suitable ice-rink systems. SPORTWAVE integrates it as part of the complete refrigeration and operating strategy rather than treating it as a standalone dashboard.

What EasyCHILL is intended to manage

EasyCHILL is designed to give operators and service teams better visibility of the rink and to reduce unnecessary refrigeration operation where conditions allow.

monitor key ice-rink and refrigeration parameters;
provide remote visibility of system status;
support automatic control according to actual ice demand;
reduce unnecessary chiller runtime;
generate fault and alarm notifications;
support remote diagnostics;
help operators compare operating periods and identify inefficient behaviour.

The objective is not the lowest possible compressor runtime. The objective is the lowest reasonable refrigeration effort that still maintains the required ice quality and operating schedule.

Why fixed operation wastes energy

A seasonal outdoor rink may experience a large difference between a cold night and a sunny afternoon. An indoor arena changes load when spectators arrive, doors open, lighting changes, humidity increases or the ice is resurfaced.

If the refrigeration plant is controlled from one worst-case setpoint all day, it can overcool the ice during low-load periods. That increases compressor energy and can also create harder ice than the activity actually needs.

Demand-based control allows the system to respond to the real thermal condition instead of assuming every hour is the design peak.

Ice temperature is one of the most important control variables

Different activities require different ice conditions. Hockey generally uses colder, harder ice, while figure skating and recreational skating can operate warmer.

ASHRAE gives representative indoor ice-temperature ranges of approximately −6.7 to −5.6°C for hockey, −4.4 to −3.3°C for figure skating and −3.3 to −2.2°C for recreational skating.

This matters because every unnecessary degree of overcooling increases the temperature lift the refrigeration system must overcome. Intelligent operation therefore starts by asking how cold the ice actually needs to be for the current session.

Engineering note
The best energy setpoint is not “as cold as possible”. It is the warmest stable ice temperature that still delivers the required skating quality and safety.

Source: ASHRAE Handbook — Refrigeration, Chapter 44: Ice Rinks.

A 1°C setpoint change can have a large annual effect

The IIHF Ice Arena Guide gives a useful scale for permanent arenas: increasing ice temperature by just 1°C, where the required ice quality allows it, can reduce annual electricity use by approximately 40–60 MWh and heating-energy use by approximately 70–90 MWh in a year-round arena example.

This is not a universal saving for every facility, but it illustrates why setpoint discipline matters. Small operational choices repeated across thousands of annual operating hours can become major lifecycle costs.

Source: IIHF Official Ice Arena Guide 2024.

AST’s “up to 60%” claim — what it should mean to a client

AST currently communicates that EasyCHILL can reduce chiller operating time / energy consumption by up to 60% in suitable applications.

This should be understood correctly. It is a maximum manufacturer-reported potential, not a guaranteed saving for every rink. The result depends on:

climate and weather variability;
indoor or outdoor installation;
rink size and thermal load;
existing control strategy;
operating hours;
required ice temperature;
refrigeration-plant efficiency;
pump and hydraulic performance;
operator behaviour.

A rink that already has advanced controls and optimised operation may have less unused potential than a seasonal rink operating continuously at one conservative setpoint.

Source: AST EasyCHILL and company technical communication.

Monitoring is valuable even when energy saving is not the first priority

Remote visibility can reduce operational risk. A service team that can see temperatures, operating state and alarms before arriving on site has more information for diagnosis than a technician responding only to the message “the ice is getting soft”.

This is particularly valuable for:

seasonal rinks without a refrigeration specialist permanently on site;
municipal facilities with limited technical staff;
multiple rink locations managed by one organisation;
event projects where downtime has immediate commercial impact;
remote sites where unnecessary service travel is expensive.

What should be monitored?

The exact sensor and control scope depends on the refrigeration system, but useful operating information can include:

ice or representative surface temperature;
secondary-fluid supply and return temperatures;
chiller operating status;
compressor runtime;
pump status;
alarms and faults;
outdoor or indoor ambient conditions;
operating schedule;
energy consumption where metering is available.

For permanent arenas, additional building data such as humidity, dehumidification status and heat-recovery operation can provide a more complete picture of the total arena energy system.

Useful KPIs for rink operators

A monitoring system becomes more valuable when the operator tracks trends rather than only individual readings.

Compressor runtime per operating day — shows whether the refrigeration system is working longer for the same schedule.
Energy per rink operating hour — helps compare periods with different opening times.
Ice temperature stability — reveals unnecessary overcooling or unstable control.
Supply / return temperature difference — useful for assessing hydraulic behaviour.
Alarm frequency — repeated minor alarms can identify a developing problem before a shutdown occurs.
Overnight operation — shows whether the plant is running harder than required when the rink is closed.

The most useful KPI is often not one absolute number, but a change from the rink’s own normal baseline.

EasyCHILL cannot correct poor basic engineering

Controls can optimise a system only within the limits of the equipment and hydraulics that already exist.

EasyCHILL cannot compensate for:

an undersized refrigeration plant;
poorly balanced rink hydraulics;
excessive pressure loss;
incorrect pump selection;
insufficient condenser airflow;
damaged or badly installed ice-floor circuits;
uncontrolled indoor humidity;
excessive ice thickness.

SPORTWAVE therefore treats control optimisation as the upper layer of a correctly engineered refrigeration and rink system.

Pump control matters too

ASHRAE notes that coolant-pump heat can represent up to approximately 11% of refrigeration load. Pump electricity also ends up as heat in the secondary fluid and must ultimately be removed by the refrigeration plant.

Where the hydraulic design allows it, variable or staged pump control can therefore reduce both direct pumping electricity and the extra refrigeration load created by the pumps themselves.

Source: ASHRAE Handbook — Refrigeration, Chapter 44.

Outdoor seasonal rinks can benefit strongly from weather-driven control

Outdoor load can change dramatically over a 24-hour period. Air temperature, sun, wind, rain and humidity all affect the heat entering the ice.

During a cold night, the rink may require much less mechanical cooling than during a sunny afternoon. A control strategy that recognises this variation can reduce unnecessary operation while still preparing the ice for the next opening period.

Permanent arenas need a broader energy-management view

For a year-round arena, refrigeration is only one of the major energy systems. IIHF groups refrigeration, heating, dehumidification, ventilation and lighting together because they typically account for more than 90% of arena energy use.

EasyCHILL can provide the refrigeration control layer, but the strongest permanent-arena results come when refrigeration is coordinated with humidity, ventilation, heat recovery, lighting and operating schedules.

Heat recovery should not be sacrificed for control savings

In permanent facilities, lowering condensing pressure can improve refrigeration efficiency, while heat recovery may sometimes benefit from higher available temperatures. The correct strategy depends on whether the recovered heat is actually useful at that moment.

Energy management should therefore optimise the whole building balance rather than minimise compressor power in isolation.

Alarm strategy should define who acts and when

A notification is useful only if someone knows what to do with it. During commissioning, the project should define which alarms are informational, which require operator action and which require immediate technical intervention.

For rental and seasonal projects, this is especially important because operator competence varies between sites. Clear escalation reduces unnecessary service calls while protecting the rink from delayed response to genuine faults.

EasyCHILL for new and existing rinks

For a new project, monitoring points and control philosophy can be designed together with the refrigeration system. This gives the cleanest integration and makes it easier to establish baseline performance from the first season.

For an existing rink, SPORTWAVE first assesses the current refrigeration unit, sensors, controls and hydraulic system. The question is not only whether EasyCHILL can be connected, but whether the available data and control points are sufficient to create meaningful optimisation.

What we need for an EasyCHILL assessment

rink type and dimensions;
mobile, seasonal or permanent installation;
refrigeration-unit make, model and capacity;
existing controller and sensor information;
secondary-fluid circuit and pump information;
planned operating schedule;
main use and required ice temperature;
available internet / network connection;
current alarms and monitoring points;
energy-metering availability;
service and notification requirements.

From these inputs, SPORTWAVE can determine how EasyCHILL should be integrated, which control functions are useful and what baseline information should be collected before energy performance is evaluated.

EasyCHILL Energy Management