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The year 2024 is off to a good start with the Radiant Professionals Alliance (RPA). On Jan. 22-24, the RPA sponsored educational sessions during the ASHRAE/AHR Expo held in Chicago, Illinois. The RPA also welcomed new members to the RPA and to the Hydronics Industry Alliance (HIA). New action items were established aimed at advancing the radiant and hydronics industry.

RPA members can take advantage of the great benefits the alliance has to offer, such as codes and standards advocacy, job center network, obtaining and creating valuable education, annual Radiant Comfort Guide, newsletter subscription, discounts for IAPMO products and services, access to webinars and much more. RPA members include professionals from all facets of the radiant profession including manufacturers, installers, engineers, architects, students, apprentices, inspectors and more. Members automatically receive the quarterly newsletter that contains the latest news, events and the RPA-hosted educational sessions from this year’s AHR Expo and previous years.

Welcoming new, returning members

The RPA’s diverse group expanded within the last months; the RPA would like to recognize our new members that will not only take advantage of all the RPA offers but also assist in advancing the hydronics industry. In recent months, the RPA was fortunate to welcome Closed-Loop, Viega, Keller Supply, Tunstall Corp. and Surge Digital Marketing. A big thank you to all of the RPA Classic members and Premium members. Because of your dedication, the radiant industry has an advocate and a voice to speaks on important matters that affect the industry.

AHR Expo

The RPA has a tradition of offering educational sessions during the ASHRAE/AHR Winter Expo. This year, the event was held in Chicago, and the RPA hosted six educational sessions. We encourage the industry to attend the RPA presentations at every AHR Winter Expo to obtain information on the latest trends and technologies impacting the radiant, hydronics and geothermal industry.

A list of the sessions that were offered during the AHR show can be seen below. All the events were well attended, and the recordings of the presentations will be available soon on the RPA website.

• “Decarbonization to Use Less Electricity,” presented by Rick Bostian, WaterFurnace;
• “Some Like it Hot, an Overview and Analysis of Market Opportunities for Solar Thermal,” presented by Will Giese, Solaray Corp.;
• “BEST Net the Energy,” presented by Greg Cunniff, PE, Egg Geo;
• “Leveraging Radiant & Hydronics to Achieve Decarbonization Goals,” presented by Hailey Mick, Uponor;
• “Design of Hydronics Snow & Ice Melting Systems to Optimize Performance & Efficiency,” presented by Lance MacNevin, Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI); and
• “How Cities Can Use Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) to Cut Pollution,” presented by Jay Egg, Egg Geo.

RPA discussions

The RPA has determined areas of interest such as the formation of an Advisory Committee that will focus on areas that will advance the industry. The Advisory Committee will be responsible for reviewing and updating educational content, such as the RPA Hydronics Manual and the ASSE 19000 (Hydronic Systems Professional Qualification Standard). The Advisory Committee had its first meeting in March. There was interest in forming a Policy Committee that will focus on legislative issues with the hopes of hosting lobby days.

I look forward to providing an updated report at the end of the year on RPA accomplishments in 2024. If you are not a member of RPA, then you should join. Please visit the RPA member page to join the alliance https://www.iapmo.org/rpa/membership/join-online

If you would like to know more about becoming part of the alliance please feel free to contact Tricia Megee at tricia.megee@iapmo.org or John Mullen at john.mullen@iapmo.org.