Managing A/C in Sports Arenas

It’s sometimes tricky enough to keep the indoor air of your home at just the right temperature to keep everyone comfortable. Imagine trying to do that in a cavernous sports arena packed with thousands of screaming sports fans.

Matt Menard, a market manager for air conditioning for ebm-pabst, which makes fans and motors, reflected on the challenges of cooling the various venues used for the 2014 NCAA basketball tournament. As he watched the games, Menard couldn’t help but wonder how the arenas managed their indoor temperatures to keep pace with the comfort levels of fans and players.

He began with a simple truth: “Arenas have everything working against energy efficient HVAC operations.” Why? For the majority of time, arenas sit empty and with the lights off, with not much need for massive heating or cooling. Then, within a handful of hours, the arenas are filled with people, banks of lights are turned on (creating substantial heat) and various concession areas crank up their broilers and ovens, adding still more heat. Then, the arenas empty out relatively quickly.

The key to taming the HVAC beast, Menard says, is “a well-designed and commissioned building automation system” that can work with strategically placed humidity and temperature sensors to let the system operate at peak efficiency.

And whether building a new arena or upgrading an existing one, it’s important to focus on the efficiency of the entire system. This can be achieved by focusing on how the whole system works at partial and full capacities, sizing components that complement one another.

It’s also necessary to utilize speed controls – cooling towers, EC fan technology and variable frequency drives for pumps – which will help arena managers save considerable money on utility bills.

Finally, Menard makes the case for “free” cooling and heating. There are airside economizers, which allow for pulling in outside air when its temperature would help to achieve the desired indoor level. Waterside economizers would not run the chillers. Instead, heat exchangers could be used to chill the water by using cooler outside air. Practicing heat recovery would be a matter of pulling “waste” heat from boiler flue stacks, chillers and exhaust air to preheat the hot water supply before it enters the boiler system.

He concludes: “Years of trial and error (combined with the latest technologies) have taught us that the energy bill for sports arenas doesn’t have to be out of control – not as long as these systems are designed, operated and updated to adapt to varying schedule and heating/cooling loads.”