Hope Recreation Centre | Heat Recovery System

In 2022, The Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) approached Prism to deliver a major energy retrofit at Hope Recreation Centre in Hope, BC. Building on a previous low-carbon electrification (LCE) study conducted by our team, this project focused on implementing a heat recovery system to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption across the facility’s aquatic and ice arena spaces. The new system is expected to achieve annual energy cost savings of $25,200 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 88.7 tonnes of CO₂, helping FVRD advance toward its low-carbon objectives.

Challenge
Aging systems and waste energy

Hope Recreation Centre is home to an ice rink, 25-metre leisure pool, hot tub, sauna, fitness spaces, and community rooms. It included two distinct systems: an ammonia refrigeration plant for cooling the ice arena and natural gas boilers for heating the aquatic centre. While the ice plant rejected large amounts of waste heat, the boilers burned gas to heat the pools, resulting in unnecessary energy waste and higher emissions.

The arena’s ice slab and refrigeration equipment were approaching end-of-life after nearly 50 years of operation. This created an opportunity for the FVRD to modernize the facility with energy-efficient technology that could both replace aging infrastructure and advance their climate goals.

Solution
Evaluating heat recovery options

Prism explored several retrofit options for integrating heat recovery into the new ice plant. Options ranged from synthetic refrigerant systems to advanced CO₂-based systems, each with different heating and cooling performance characteristics. Thermal storage alternatives were also assessed but found to be financially and environmentally impractical for this site.

After a detailed evaluation, Prism designed replacing the ammonia ice plant with a CO₂ ice plant that circulates glycol beneath the ice slab. The system captures and redistributes waste heat to multiple loads throughout the building: under-slab heating, lap pool and leisure pool heating, and the hydronic heating loop that serves the natatorium, change rooms, and library. To further improve energy performance, a REALice system was installed, allowing ice resurfacing to use unheated water.

All these upgrades can enhance energy efficiency, safety, and sustainability while also aligning with necessary equipment replacement.

Outcome
Energy efficiency and environmental benefits

The new CO₂ heat recovery system enables the facility to recover waste heat from the ice plant and reduce gas consumption in the aquatic centre. CO₂ refrigerant’s ability to reject heat at multiple temperatures makes it ideal for meeting diverse heating demands—from pool heating to air handling systems to underslab heating — without installing additional heat pumps.

The system functions similarly to the former ammonia setup, requiring minimal retraining and fewer safety restrictions. Maintenance is simplified, with only a few pumps and heat exchangers, and the pools themselves act as thermal storage to balance heating loads.

Because much of the work coincided with required equipment replacement, project costs were minimized while achieving significant environmental benefits. Once fully optimized, the system is projected to achieve energy cost savings of $25,200 and reduce GHG emissions by 88.7 tonnes of CO₂.

Award-winning results

The innovative approach and potential outcomes of this project earned Prism Engineering a 2024-25 ASHRAE BC Chapter Award in the Existing Institutional Buildings Category, recognizing our leadership in advancing energy-efficient, low-carbon building solutions.

Left to right: CO₂ gas cooler, CO₂ ice plant heat recovery heat exchangers and construction while installing the new subflooring in the ice rink.