ARLINGTON, Va. — The Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), the Air-Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), and the Heating, Airconditioning, and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) announced they will collaborate closely on educational initiatives to benefit the industry’s hydronics and radiant panel sectors.

The hydronics partnership was developed in a series of meetings at ACCA, which recently launched a Radiant & Hydronics Council (RHC) to provide specific support to member companies who work in the hydronics field.

“Hydronics is of growing importance to our industry, as contractors are now being expected to understand a wide variety of different technologies in order to serve their customers, from air to water to ground and back again,” said Paul T. Stalknecht, ACCA president and CEO. “The three legs of our industry — contractors, manufacturers, and distributors — all recognize this importance. We understand we need to work together to ensure that systems are properly designed, installed, and maintained.”

Through the collaboration, AHRI will continue to update basic hydronics training and curricula. This material will be used by HARDI to encourage its distributor members to provide hydronics training in their local areas. ACCA also will use this material to develop online education for contractors and their employees, and encourage members to take advantage of HARDI member training where available. The ACCA RHC will develop advanced online training modules for contractors that need to go beyond the basics in hydronics design and installation.

In addition, the ACCA RHC and HARDI will be represented on the AHRI committees responsible for developing or revising hydronics training materials. The ACCA RHC will join AHRI, HARDI, and many others in the North American Council on Hydronics, a U.S.-Canadian alliance group.

“We are delighted about this new collaboration,” said Stephen Yurek, AHRI president and CEO. “Working together, our three organizations will provide a higher level of service and professionalism than we could on our own to the entire hydronics industry.”

Talbot Gee, HARDI executive vice president and COO, added, “Our members are very excited about the opportunities presented by collaboration between our three organizations. There are tremendous possibilities for future projects that will pay great dividends for those who specialize in hydronics, an area where industry-specific education is sorely needed.”

For more information, visit www.acca.org.

Publication date: 01/09/2012