Client Testimonials

When it comes to opening a 650,000 Square foot building from the ground up, as we all know there are a vast amount of many moving parts and pieces to make this happen.

Being in charge of the ice Operations and Conversion Dept. this position comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility, especially when it’s the first year for the NHL’s first expansion team in many years. The Golden Knights.
Simply put, I was very fortunate to develop a great relationship with Frozen Automation and their second to none dedication to customer service and prompt response to our serious needs and assistance when needed.

When it came to all aspects of the building, especially the ice plant and operation, we had to be at the top of our game for this inaugural first season. Their attention to the finest detail and creative approach help us have one of the NHL’s best ice our first year, with every team in the league praising the ice and building conditions. If one could only imagine the onslaught of hurdles etc. we had to overcome. FACS was there every second, any time, day or night.

Opening a 1.1 million square foot facility that Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta is had its fair share of challenges. Expectations were very high and with the facility being so new and not surprisingly, we experienced many trials that had to be faced and overcome.

I am happy to say that with the combination of an excellent team combined with first troubleshooting then implementing strategies that FACS (Frozen Automation and Consulting Services) was able to provide, we had a very successful opening.

As with all organizations, we were always looking to improve on our efficiencies to help reduce costs while ensuring we weren’t sacrificing our operational requirements. Similar to the opening, with effort from our talented team and FACS, we were voted by the NHLPA as having the 2nd best ice in the league (over 20% of the players found it to be the best) and at the same time, we had significant utility savings. Additionally, providing fan comfort in a hockey arena was another challenge that was met with success. Year over year we have diligently looked for new opportunities to improve efficiencies and reduce utility consumption which we have successfully done so time and time again.

The experience and strategies that have been utilized at Rogers Place can have a large benefit to any facility, no matter the size. As a member and supporter of the Green Sports Alliance, I am always happy to hear that utilities are being reduced as efficiently as possible. It’s a great combination of cost savings for the facility as well as promoting a sustainable future.

Regards,

I have had the pleasure of working alongside FACS (Frozen Automation and Consulting Services) since the fall of 2010, and during the past ten years, I’ve worked with two different employers. FACS has always found ways to optimize our refrigeration systems and HVAC components.

While employed with the City of Yellowknife, I was able to employ FACS, and through their level of expertise and professionalism, we improved our eco-chill recovery system efficiency to capture and repurpose 35% more heat recovery. Between that and the increased efficiency of our refrigeration plant, we enjoyed a large savings on our utility costs. This was due to adjustments and configurations that FACS saw and made that no other technician did. It was an eye-opening experience to see how well they can read and configure the building controls.

A little further down the line and with a different employer my venue had the fortune of hosting the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Curling is a sport that sets the bar in regard to ice and refrigeration management. FACS came out and helped my staff understand and manage the ice conditions for the duration of the tournament. They did this as a labor of love and from one professional who loves what they do it is a joy to have forward thinking people like FACS.  Always willing to take the challenge of “We can’t do that” to “How can we make that work”.

Since opening the Avenir Centre, FACS has been a huge resource to ensure that we have smooth operations and are constantly looking for new ways to be more efficient and cost effective with our utilities.

Frozen Automation has been our automation service provider for 3 years.  They have worked alongside Canadian Arena Services on several professional building (NHL) automation enhancement projects.  Frozen Automation has succeeded in meeting our expectations in managing all aspects of the services they provide us.

Their commitment to 24/7 on demand service is impeccable.  They have a well-organized company who are extremely flexible to changing work schedules that are needed to adapt to the needs of our high-level customers.

They are professional, knowledgeable and well mannered.  The constant stream of communication I receive from Frozen Automation has greatly assisted me in the intricate, fast paced, dynamic work environment that the nature of our business is subject to.

I would be pleased to recommend Frozen Automation for any future work on which they bid and are happy to continue partnering with them as Canadian Arena Services continues to grow as a business.

Ice Tempering Program

Working for a NHL club, we are always looking for ways to improve our Ice quality.  After reading some articles on tempering ice and doing a little research of our own and getting the green light from our leaders we gave this a try.  The results where amazing.

Our ice was soft, dehydrated and despite our best efforts wasn’t getting much better.  Our first night tempering was a long night that lasted a total of 16 hours.  A sum of 16 for the engineer running the plant and 4 hours for the Zamboni driver on shift.  The next morning after the big club skated I was asked what we did to the ice.  Nervous I explained that we tried something and I was happy to hear the response was very positive from the players.  Since having such good results, we now temper every couple of weeks to this day.

The main idea behind this process was to warm up the ice to the point of melting on the surface and then slowly cool it back down to its normal temp.  This process normally was a drop of half a degree every hour.  This was the main reason for the 16 hour shift.  This was all done by hand adjusting the temp on the plant computer.

We learned a lot over the first few months of this.  Not only was our ice harder, we found that if hot floods were applied during the process, we could also reduce the amount of time required and it hydrated the ice at the same time.  Our total dissolved solids also migrated to the surface as well so a shave and wash was adapted.  If repeated every few weeks made a product that was hard, clear and less snow.  This process then moved to other NHL clubs and has become somewhat of a norm for NHL best ice practices.

One night finding it hard to sleep I was thinking of a way our computer could run a program that would allow it to automatically drop the temperature.  I envisioned a process that first shutdown the plant with the click of a button and a safety built in to not go to warm and loose the ice.  Second was to easily restore the plant to normal operation with a drop in temperature set by the operator.  If I had more time then the half hour drop could be changes to 0.2 degrees drop every hour etc.  Once the program would hit normal operating temps it would disengage and let the plant run its normal program until the next temper.  My next step was to get this idea installed on our system.

I reached out to our original automation refrigeration company.  After talking to them in Toronto, I was told such a program couldn’t work with our system.  Refusing to give up I reached out to Frozen Automation who said it could be done and they went to work.  They created the program exactly as described and with only minor tweaks we devolved the tempering program.  Now all that is required is a click on the graphics and our operator can start the program.  Once the floods are done and by the click of another button, the program will drop the desired temp every hour until the target is reached.  This eliminated the need for another operator or engineer to sit on the computer or in the plant manually doing this task.

At the end of the day our ice was awesome!  There was no need for extra bodies working overtime.  We could all sleep knowing a program was doing the job.