The company provided the ice and infrastructure, including lighting and PA equipment for venues ranging from shopping malls to parks across the UK including Gloucester, Hampstead and Windsor. A more unusual location for one of the rinks was on the roof of a shopping centre in Victoria which posed some interesting challenges including pumping the cooling fluid up two storeys through a pipe run of 30m.
Stage Electrics worked closely with clients and partner company Aggreko and reports that there was no single day's skating lost due to equipment failure and all rinks opened on time. Using a highly efficient aluminium heat transfer system, the company reports up to a 20% saving in fuel costs from the traditional EPDM method.
The last winter rink supplied by Stage Electrics will be closed on February 20th 2006 leaving 30,000 litres of cooling fluid and 2,500 pairs of skates on the shelf till next winter. Andy Loveday Project Manager from Stage Electrics reports however that it is possible to supply an ice rink all throughout the year, even during warm weather.
(Chris Henry)
