Carrier Rental Systems Delivers Cool Solution for Red Bull’s Global Crashed Ice Event
Carrier Rental Systems (UK) Ltd, the UK’s leading temporary cooling and heating specialist, has supplied high-efficiency chillers and heaters for the downhill ice track at the Red Bull Crashed Ice event in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The company delivered four Carrier 30RB402 AquaSnap® air-cooled chillers to the Stormont site, where the steeply raked track was built on the steps of the Parliament building. Carrier worked closely with ice rink specialist AST Eistechnik GmbH of Austria, who designed, supplied and commissioned the refrigeration piping system, and was responsible for the preparation and maintenance of the ice track.
Carrier Rental Systems’ timely supply of high-performance cooling and heating equipment, coupled with its experience of supporting large-scale outdoor ice-based activities, ensured a successful event for Red Bull, the global energy drink manufacturer.
Described as one of the world’s fastest sports, the competitive ice cross downhill competition was one of four Red Bull Crashed Ice outings of the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship staged throughout the year, attracting global participation from competing teams. It was the first such Red Bull event staged in the UK.
With a combined cooling capacity of 1.6 megwatts, the Carrier chillers circulated a 40:60 mixture of glycol and water at -10 degrees Celsius through the AST “Skateway” system, which is a flexible carpet of tubes running the length of the track.
Once the chillers were connected, water was sprayed onto the freezing surface, taking 10 days to produce a 4.5 inch-thick layer of high quality ice along the 430 metre long track.
The serpentine downhill track extended from the steps of Stormont, sweeping down the line of the road through Parliament park, and rising steeply to clear the central monument and roundabout, enabling cars and buses to continue passing underneath.
“It was a tremendous event, attracting huge local and international interest,” said Simon Ward, national events manager, Carrier Rental Systems. “It also represented a superb application of temporary cooling in a spectacular setting, not to mention the equally important application of temporary heating.”
In addition to chillers, Carrier Rental Systems also supplied a boiler-based heating solution. Two 400 kilowatt units provided hot water at 45 degrees Celsius to melt the ice track after the culmination of the three-day competition.
Ward added: “Once frozen, the ice track had significant thermal inertia, and the decommissioning required boiler installation to produce heat. The energy flowing through the Skateway piping system ensured the ice melted in just two days. The time factor is extremely important for such projects, as decommissioning costs on site are a major component of overall event costs.”
In addition to chillers and boilers, Carrier Rental Systems supplied external pumps, buffer tanks, flanges, adapters and 300 metres of flexible hosing for the project, demonstrating its ability to deliver a full turnkey temporary cooling package for large scale events.
Carrier Rental Systems deploys a comprehensive range of temperature control rental equipment at locations across the UK and Ireland, enabling timely support of major outdoor leisure and sporting events as well as rapid response to HVAC system breakdowns.
Rental periods can range from one day to however long the temporary heating and/or cooling solution is required.
