ARC HeRO Project
As a large civic facility with year-round operations of a pool and community centre and a seasonal arena, the Abbotsford Recreation Centre (ARC) is a significant source of carbon pollution for the City of Abbotsford. To support the City’s climate action goals in the Official Community Plan, the ARC Heat Recovery and Optimization (HeRO) Project was identified and aims to reduce energy use and carbon pollution while not only improving and extending the life of the City’s recreation assets, but also increasing patron comfort throughout the facility. Project elements include retrofitting the rec centre’s Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, enhancing wheelchair pool lifts, and interconnection of all mechanical systems to save energy and efficiently share thermal (or heat) energy throughout the facility. These improvements are expected to reduce the facility’s energy consumption by an estimated 41.37% and greenhouse gas emissions by 455 tonnes annually.
Construction Details:
Throughout the construction period, City contractors will be installing piping throughout the facility to connect the aquatic centre with the arena and the community centre. This piping will carry water that is heated by waste heat captured from the aquatic centre and arena to other areas of the building where heat is needed. This waste heat would typically be released into the surrounding air outside. Once the heat is transferred, the cool water will be returned and re-heated, completing the heat recovery loop.
New digital controls will also be installed to ensure that building operators are able to adjust and monitor all aspects of the new system to provide consistent and comfortable temperature conditions throughout ARC.
Project Benefits
ARC is made up of three major recreation areas: the aquatic centre, the arena and the community centre. These were constructed in 3 separate phases in 1972, 1995 and 2008. As a result, various systems throughout the facility, like heating and cooling, are not integrated and most need updating or replacement. This project provides an opportunity to integrate the three systems and improve system efficiency through new technology that will allow the facility to capture waste heat for use in other areas of the facility, thereby decreasing energy use and reducing carbon pollution.
The City is doing the ARC HeRO project to not only improve the recreation experience for patrons by upgrading heating and cooling systems to make the facility more comfortable, but also demonstrating our ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability by decreasing our energy use and reducing our carbon pollution. The HeRO project will reduce natural gas consumption, improve energy efficiency, make use of waste heat onsite while also improving the temperature and overall comfort of spaces throughout the ARC facility.
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System commissioning, testing, and optimization are continuing behind the scenes at ARC. Testing has determined some additional modifications are required within the arena’s ice plant to achieve target performance. As a result, some minor additional construction work will be completed on the east side of the building in the coming weeks. Public impacts from construction will remain minimal for the remainder of the project. Most contractor trailers have been removed from site, restoring parking along the west side of ARC.
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Program and by the BC Provincial Government through the Growing Communities Fund.
2499 McMillan Road