Kalmar Sportcenter consists of two ice rinks, sports halls and a swimming pool. In 2020 Kalmar Municipality started the project to replace the old "IFFE hall" with a new hockeyallsvensk arena which will be able to accommodate 2500 people during hockey games. The total building area is 7950 m2 and solar cells should also be installed on the roof. The construction project was started in spring 2020 and the arena will be completed in October 2021.
EKA has designed the redevelopment and expansion of the existing cooling plant together with extended heat recovery through a heat pump solution. The cooling system is a completely indirect ammonia system that now receives ammonia water as a secondary fluid in the existing training hall as well as in the new arena. Through the increased heat pump capacity, the dehumidification can be driven with recycled heat instead of electricity as has previously been the case. The arena also receives comfort cooling generated by the heat pumps, which provides a good energy match when comfort cooling and dehumidification needs generally coincide.
Furthermore, EKA has also provided solutions for the arena climate with textile channels in custom rings for both the ventilation and dehumidification functions. These system solutions create climate zones and reduce the temperature difference between the first and last row in the stands from typical levels such as 8K to less than 2K. The result is an increase in comfort and at the same time minimized unnecessary heat load on the ice.
Other ice rink-typical systems that EKA has designed are ice rink floor and boards and the plant's control system. The latter has a so-called scenario structure, where predefined control scenarios facilitate operation when the energy systems work together to achieve various desired operational cases such as training, match or ice maintenance.
We should add that all additional cooling systems are based on natural refrigerants!