Maintaining ideal snow is no problem for Rehau
Optimum conditions for the artificially created real snow in a new Snow Centre at Hemel Hempstead will be maintained by an underfloor cooling system.
Designed by Acer Snowmec Consultants, the system uses 38 km of Rehau PE-Xa pipe and 800 Everloc joints. There are 400 pipe circuits under the indoor ski slope to circulate the cooling medium required to maintain optimum conditions for the snow.
The system was installed by Rehau authorised partner Shires Technical Services. Clear 20 mm pipe specially made for the project by Rehau in Germany was laid at 300 mm intervals across the 140 m-long, 40 m-high slope.
The cooling system for the ski slop was installed by Cryotech Systems. A glycol/water mix at -15°C is circulated from the chiller plant to the Rehau pipework on the slope and the overhead gantry coolers. Shires also installed underfloor heating with liquid circulating at 35°C in the concrete foundation slab to operate as a frost heave by isolating the ground from the freezing slope and reducing potential damage to the slab.
A heated slab in the entrance lobby helps melt snow carried through on skiers’ boots and provides a buffer between the heated and cooled zones in the building.
