No heat is wasted at Rezekne’s Olympic Centre

Energy self-sufficiency maintained at this sports venue

The municipal website of Rezekne (Latvia) reported that during the COVID-19 pandemic closure of facilities, the free time was not wasted in idleness.

19 September 2020 saw the official opening of the Olympic Centre Rezekne (OCR), however, soon after that, it had to close due to the restrictions set in place. Its management immediately decided to use the opportunity and install a sustainable heating system, which uses energy generated by the cooling of the ice rinks to heat the outdoor swimming pool.

Energy circularity in motion at the sports centre

Thanks to the installed heat removal system, the energy produced by the ice cooling equipment is directed to the swimming pool. After evaluating the swimming pool heating expenses in 2019, 2020 and 2021 it was found that the energy produced by the ice coolers fully satisfies the heating needs of the large swimming pool. External energy coming from the city heating networks is only used for heating the children's pool.

The heat removal system for maintaining the ice rink area transfers the energy generated by the compressor to the pool heating circuit through a device called ‘heat exchanger’. In this way, the excess heat of the compressor is not wasted, and the stress on the cooling equipment of the compressor system is reduced - the heat dissipated to the pool gets cooled by about 3 degrees.

If the temperature in the pool drops below 27C, the city heating switches on automatically because the compressor is automated. This ensures that the water in the swimming pool is constantly warm.

"In order to be fully ready to start work, daily monitoring was performed every day, and the ability of the system to adapt to different conditions was also tested," explained Vladimir Bogdanov, a member of the OCR board.

OCR board member Jekaterina Meirāne added that the heat exchange system has saved a lot of money: "Thanks to such modernization, in June 2021, compared to previous years, the savings were 4349 euros".

Currently, the outdoor swimming pool is open to everyone, but the ice rink and gym can only be visited by those who can present a valid negative Covid-19 test or a Covid-19 certificate confirming the fact of previous illness or vaccination.