February EKA sessions WOW!

I would be remiss if I didn't report on the excellent seminars that were recently held at Spirac/Sarco in Allentown, Pa and in Trevose,Pa.

On Friday Feb. 6 and Saturday Feb.7 the Delaware Valley chapter of RSES hosted the Winter EKA training for region 2. What?

Well, the Refrigeration Service Engineer Society or RSES is comprised of about 13 regions. The Lehigh Valley chapter is in Region 2 which comprises all the chapters from Pa. and New York. The Empire Keystone Association or EKA is the region 2 association of all these chapters. Each chapter in region 2 has the opportunity to meet with other chapters from region 2 about three times a year for some expanded training opportunities.

The winter training was held on Feb.6&7 and it was a great occasion for training. The topics for the Friday and Saturday training were "Steam Fundamentals" presented by Spirax/Sarco at their training facility in Allentown and "Hydronics" presented by Crown boiler of Philadelphia.

If you ever have the opportunity to spend a day at the training facility for Spirax/Sarco, be sure that you don't miss it. The classroom was actually overbooked, but the instruction and lab time were invaluable for me. Being able to hear the theory and then see how it actually worked in the lab made it more real for me and something that will remain with me for a long time.

On Saturday I had the privilege of spending the day near Philadelphia learning about hydronics and boilers which was presented by the Crown Boiler trainer. I learned a lot about why we do things to make these hot water systems work correctly.

Both seminars complimented each other nicely. As usual, I was impressed by the quality of the speakers. It's also so enjoyable to meet and speak with so many HVAC pros from across the region.

On Sunday the EKA delegates met for breakfast and a business meeting. I will report that the Lehigh Valley RSES has been given the opportunity to host the Oct.'09 EKA training weekend. This will be a great opportunity to participate in a larger event as a chapter. I'm looking forward to working with the EKA officers and the Lehigh Valley officers to host this event. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to comment or contact any one of the officers.

Finally, don't forget our monthly meeting on Thursday, Feb. 26 from 6-8PM at the ABC training center. Bob Thomas from Honeywell will be with us to do a presentation on linkless burner controls. See you all there.

Great February Meeting! Great March Meeting to come!

The Feb. meeting of LVRSES was well attended and for those who attended there was a real cacophony of information about an often overlooked subject: the lowly gas pressure regulator. Mr. Tom Ganfield from Maxitrol http://www.maxitrol.com/ did a great job in presenting the operation, installation and code requirements for gas pressure regulators. There were a lot of good questions from those in attendance about all sorts of issues about these often overlooked but critical components of the gas train. I learned a lot from Mr. Ganfield, the speaker, but I think I learn as much from those in the audience when I listen to the interaction between these HVAC pros and the speaker. Thank you to Tom Ganfield from Maxitrol for including our chapter in you very busy schedule. We also appreciate the Maxitrol handbook that you gave to each of us who attended, as well as the ball caps and other hand outs. We look forward to hearing you again.

Also, congratulations to those who won the door prizes!

Our March meeting will feature Mr. Bob Thomas from Honeywell www.honeywell.com . This also promises to be an excellent presentation. Mr. Thomas will speak on the subject of linkless controls. You won't want to miss it. The meeting will be held on Thursday March 26, 6-8PM at the ABC training center in Allentown. We look forward to seeing you all there.