On a cold day, one of the desired spots for spectators in an arena is beneath the bleacher heaters. Overhead Heaters offer a bit of comfort, at least for the upper body parts while watching the game.
Heaters above the bleachers are still featured at many ice arenas and in many cases run all the time.
Sometimes they are turned on first thing in the morning, run all day and occasionally the crew will forget to shut them off and they run all night.
Taking these heaters out might be a hard sell for the fans, especially if it is mid-season. Another solution however is to consider operating them on coin-operated timers.
Charging a dollar or even two to watch a game might make a big difference to the energy spent.
Patrons can use their coins to pay to turn bleacher heaters. This might make some patrons think twice about turning the heaters on at all.
If you are not quite ready to charge patrons for using the bleacher heaters, alternatively you could be installing a button permitting 20 minutes of operations. This will already keep the system from being left on longer than absolutely necessary.
Benefits:
Coin-Operated heaters:
- Extra revenue for the arena to pay for the energy used
- Likely less heater use
Savings:
- Natural gas (usually) or electricity depending on what commodity source the heaters are powered
- CO2
