The leveling of sand around the tubing has been completed.
The sand is kept moist by spraying a mist over it every day or two,
depending on how much moisture has evaporated. Electricity has
been hooked up to the chiller and the only thing that remains to be
completed is the pipe hook-up from the headers to the chiller.
Today, I realized, as confirmed by Jack Rhinehart, that there are
actually two sets up tubing in every row. One is for the
outgoing coolant, the other for the incoming. Approximately 650
gallons of coolant will be used. The chiller can pump up to
300 gallons per minute, but it's difficult to compute how many times
per minute or hour the coolant in the ice rink will actually
circulate. Once the coolant is circulating, one of the
chiller's tasks will be to maintain no more than a 4 degree
differential between the incoming and outgoing coolant.
Once the chiller is connected to the ice rink, it will be ready
to make ice perhaps as early as this weekend. One of the
difficulties, a slight one at that, to be overcome, is this year's
placement of the chiller. If you look closely in
this photo at the left end of the
chiller, the piping coming off the chiller is facing North,
instead of South towards the ice rink. Also adding to the mix
when the ice rink is up and running will be this year's placement of
the rink. Last year as in the year before, the ice rink sits
in the middle of the plaza instead of the along the North edge
against the grass.
Today, a skate-sharpening
school was held so staff could learn to sharpen skates. A few
minor tasks remain, including the installation of the advertising
around the rink and some clean up. The next major cosmetic
step will be the building of the cover for the heads and ramps into
the ice rink for the Zamboni.
