by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Mar 13/98) - Before building a new arena in Yellowknife, the city would do well to have an energy-management expert walk through the plans first.

Inuvik didn't, and the new arena there soared well over budget during construction. It is proving just as expensive to run -- so much so that the town brought in a GNWT expert last week to tell it why the operating costs of the facility are so high.

After walking through the building, the consultant had a few ideas, all of which could have been fixed before the first brick was laid.

"Definitely, they should have someone at least go through the blueprints and correct the mistakes at the beginning," said Stefan Bernath, an energy-management officer with the territorial government's Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development Department.

In Inuvik's case, that could have saved the town the money it spent on fixtures that now should be modified or replaced to get operating costs under control.

The most expensive headache is the bill for heating the two ice surfaces, which is why in the dead of winter, the town was filling up a 2,000-litre tank of heating oil every two days.

Most of the heat in the two arenas comes from overhead unit heaters, those boxy grey units found in older arenas whose main drawback is they simply warm the surrounding air rather than directing heat at spectators the way infrared heaters do.

While warming the arena air, the older heaters force the machines that keep the ice cold to work much harder, causing a significant increase in energy consumption without noticeably warming up frosty hockey moms and dads in the bleachers.

Lighting is also a biggie. Inuvik's new curling ice, for example, is lit by 28 separate 400-watt fixtures only a few meters off the ice, which makes the rink bright enough for television.

"You need sunglasses in there," Bernath joked. "I am recommending taking out half the lights."