BROADVIEW, Ill. - Over 30 technicians met March 15-18 in Nashville for The Unified Group’s Controls Training Session. The training covered basic control theory, troubleshooting peripheral equipment, input-output troubleshooting, valve sizing, and actuators. The class was geared toward the technician who has limited to no controls experience. Almost all of the committee members along with Mike Rausch of Nashville Machine, served as the training instructors for the first two days. Patty Parrish with Belimo Americas covered valve sizing and actuators on the last day.

“Our goal with this training session was to help eliminate the fear factor and intimidation involved when a technician views a control panel,” said Julie Bishop, executive director. “This session, like all of our meetings, provides a great opportunity for our members to share and learn from each other’s real-world experience.”

More than 35 Unified Group members also met March 25-26 in Chicago to develop a better understanding of green building practices and principles at The Unified Group’s LEED for new construction accreditation exam training.

Dave Hubka, sustainable project manager at Total Mechanical Inc. in Pewaukee, Wis., taught the prep course. “The idea for this class was brought up at last year’s annual meeting and here we are less than four months later,” said Bishop, executive director. “It just goes to show how powerful our group is that we can do something like this class.”

The day and a half course covered the LEED process and the prerequisites/credits. It also included sample test questions and a question and answer session at the end of each day.

For more information, visit www.theunifiedgroup.com.

Publication date:04/20/2009