Out of ordinary: Skiing under a hot desert sun

What has been referred to as one of the "biggest refrigerators in the world", Dubai's indoor winter sports centre, designed by Acer Snowmech Consultants, spans 170 000 m3, defying nature and a stifling hot desert sun. In order to create an ideal skiing environment, the temperature within the space must be maintained just below freezing at -1.5°C during public use and then lowered to -6°C at night during the snowmaking procedure. A three-stage cooling system supplies fresh air at a rate of 4.51/s per person at -1.5°C. The temperature is lowered using run-around coils, which transfer cool from exhaust air to fresh air. A chilled water coil then removes humidity from the air and lowers its temperature to 10°C using chilled water from the centre. Finally the air passes across one of a pair of low temperature coils (two coils, one on defrost as the other is cooling and vice versa) creating an authentic winter chill.