Cost of low-emissivity ceiling at the RECC to pay for itself in energy savings

TRURO A maximum budget of $60,000 has been set for the cost of the new low-emissivity ceiling planned for the Rath Eastlink Community Centre (RECC) to improve ice-making conditions.

But that expenditure should pay for itself within four to six years through reduced energy savings, Colchester County council recently heard.

And our ice would be better, our equipment would work less frequently and it would be the solution (to previous ice-making issues), Deputy Mayor Bill Masters said.

Now, that is the determination that those experts made, he said of architectural and engineering officials who were consulted on the issue.

The matter was raised by Councillor Geoff Stewart at councils last Committee of the Whole meeting in response to a call for tenders recently issued by the municipality for installation of a low-emissivity ceiling.

Is that something that we had discussed here that I missed, he asked, that we were going to fund or pay funds to put in a new ceiling at the RECC?

The decision to install the ceiling had actually not come before council but had been made by the RECCs project steering committee, which has the authority to approve capital expenditures at the facility.

The cost is to be split evenly between the county and the Town of Truro.

Masters, who is a member of the committee, said the low-emissivity ceiling will be similar to one installed at the Brookfield Sportsplex during the 1990s, which acts as a barrier from heat generated through the roof by the sun.

Council heard that the alternative to solving ice-making problems, which delayed the opening of the RECCs hockey rink last fall, would have been to install additional equipment that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and added to the facilitys operating expenses.

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Cost of low-emissivity ceiling at the RECC to pay for itself in energy savings