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| Radiant Professionals Alliance attendees talk in roundtable sessions about industry topics at its meeting Sept. 18-20 in Philadelphia. Photo credit: Radiant Professionals Alliance |
Members of the Radiant Professionals Alliance gathered Sept. 18-20, 2013, in Philadelphia for their annual conference and membership meeting. The national convention was the second since RPA was acquired early last year by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO).
RPA’s education track included workshops on radiant cooling by Robert Bean, solar thermal system design by Tom Lane and infrared imaging technology by RPA Executive Director Mark Eatherton. Members engaged in roundtable discussions led by the chairmen of various RPA committees such as technical (Eric Aune), education (Max Rohr), membership (Matt Michel), codes and standards (Randy Knapp) and Hydronics Industry Alliance (Todd Romig).
Eatherton delivered a state of the organization address in which he recapped RPA’s activities since it became a unit of IAPMO and its participation at industry trade shows.
“The current task at hand is the development of the 2015 Uniform Solar Energy Hydronics Code,” he said, noting the process already had begun via conference calls and a face-to-face meeting of an IAPMO working group in June in Mokena, Ill. “Once the information from the code begins coming together and being produced, the workload for RPA’s education and technical committees will increase significantly to ensure that when the code becomes available for application and enforcement that the members of the RPA will be thoroughly trained, certified and prepared to do business under the new code.”
A code technical committee was scheduled to review recommended additions and changes to the Solar Energy Hydronics Code in late October at IAPMO’s headquarters in Ontario, Calif.
RPA continues to seek out educational opportunities with other organizations, Eatherton noted. These include the Refrigeration Services Engineers Society, International Ground Source Heat Pump Association, Air Conditioning Contractors of America, Solar Energy Industry Association, Green Build America and Passive House Institute.
On www.radiantprofessionalsalliance.org, RPA will continue to offer online education including webinars, radiant training programs and certification programs. It has partnered with online education provider HeatSpring and will present “The Basics of Radiant Design” course starting in January 2014.
“We are constantly in membership drive mode, seeking new and returning members to become engaged with the process to provide the services our industry needs and wants in order to grow hydronics and radiant,” Eatherton said. “We have established a subcommittee to our Hydronics Industry Alliance committee, which is titled the R-718 Group, which will focus on capturing and recapturing the commercial markets as it pertains to the utilization of these extremely efficient systems with the intent of ‘growing hydronics.’ A marketing/strategy meeting with the key members of the R-718 Group members is being scheduled for the latter part of November.”
