What is the environmental impact of ice skating? How do indoor ice rinks stay frozen? These are important questions to ask before installing an ice rink. Apart from the cost of buying or renting a conventional ice rink, you should consider the energy and water wasted as well as the pollution these rinks cause.
Have you ever asked yourself how ice rinks stay frozen?
Environmental impact of an ice rink
Depending on the size and dimensions of the conventional or refrigerated ice rink, as well as the climate in the area where the rink is, an ice skating rink consumes varying amounts of kilowatts, water and expels tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Also, these refrigerated ice rinks can suffer water and glycol leaks (glycol is the chemical that keeps the ice surface cold); and noise pollution produced by the generators constantly running.
Imagine the daily energy and water expenses required to keep indoor ice rinks frozen, not to mention rinks in hot climates or outdoor rinks exposed to sunlight.
Let’s look at an example. A conventional or refrigerated ice rink of approximately 200m2, the average size of public ice rinks, installed outdoors during the winter in central Europe (cold climate) consumes 19,900 litres of water, 16,800kw of energy and emits 5.52 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each month.
This adds up to the equivalent energy consumption of 610 homes. Insane right? Convert this into electricity and water bills and ask yourself is it worth it?
The scarcity of water and increasing pollution are issues that concern all of us. We are becoming more and more aware of the state of the environment and having to fight to protect our planet.
Xtraice as an ecological alternative ice rink
Xtraice manufactures and distributes synthetic ice rinks, which can also be called ecological ice rinks because they are 100% recyclable and do not consume energy or water. Apart from that, they are cleaner and do not require big noisy generators and best of all, they do not emit CO2 into the atmosphere whatsoever. At Xtraice, we are constantly striving to achieve optimal glide conditions as similar as possible to frozen water.
Here you will find more information on what exactly synthetic ice rinks are and how they work.
Why waste money, energy and water daily when you can save with Xtraice rinks?
Xtraice is a guaranteed durable material with zero maintenance costs.
