NDCC energy retrofit given green light by RDCK
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
A bid for the Nelson and District Community Complex energy recovery project has been accepted and the long awaited retrofit is now fit to begin.
Late last week the Regional District of Central Kootenay board of directors voted to accept the $329,728 bid from Venture Mechanical for the project.
Last May a financial hurdle put the energy recovery retrofit for the NDCC on hold. The Regional District of Central Kootenay board of directors rejected the single proposal of $366,949 received for the project because it was $175,000 more than was budgeted for.
The project budget was based on a cost estimate formulated when the complex had an energy audit performed two years ago.
But the second phase of the energy recovery retrofit — putting in a heat pump and running pipe from the ice plant to the facilities’ boilers — received only a single proposal when the call for tenders went out.
The new total for the project was estimated to be $365,000, much higher than the $230,000 initially budgeted. That meant the City and regional district areas E and F — also partners in the operation of the facility — had to ante up a few more dollars.
And they did. The region’s recreation commission proposed that an additional $100,000 be contributed through Community Works (Gas Tax) funds, with the City and the two regional district areas contributing $33,333 each.
However, there would be a shortfall of $35,000 for the project, covered by the energy savings it would realize.
In 2009 the NDCC accomplished phase one of the heat recovery project, installing a heat exchanger into the ice plant on the arena side of the complex.
An energy audit report from AME identified the opportunity to capture the heat loss from the ice plant operation to be used to heat the swimming pool and facility.
Approximately $35,000 in utility savings could be realized annually with installation of the heat recovery system. Pay back of the project is five years.
