Towards Intelligent and Sustainable Indoor Ice Arenas: Integrating Energy Systems, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Advanced Control

Indoor ice arenas (IIAs) are among the most energy-intensive public buildings because they must simultaneously maintain high-quality ice surfaces, acceptable indoor environmental quality (IEQ), and reliable operation under continuously changing climatic and occupancy conditions. Unlike conventional sports facilities, their performance is governed by strong interactions among refrigeration, ventilation, dehumidification, heat recovery, building envelopes, and operational strategies. This comprehensive review synthesizes the current state of knowledge on the fundamental characteristics of IIAs, major IEQ issues, integrated energy systems, energy-efficiency measures, and emerging intelligent technologies. The literature demonstrates that significant progress has been achieved in improving individual technologies, including advanced refrigeration systems, displacement ventilation, low-emissivity ceilings, envelope optimization, waste-heat utilization, and AI-assisted control. However, existing studies remain largely fragmented, with limited attention to long-term field validation, standardized performance evaluation, and integrated system optimization. Future research should therefore move beyond subsystem-level improvements toward coordinated management of coupled energy and environmental processes. Integrating physics-based knowledge with artificial intelligence, digital twins, predictive control, and district-energy systems will provide important opportunities for developing more energy-efficient, intelligent, low-carbon, and sustainable indoor ice arenas.