Over the past 12 months TROX Academy has hosted many training events and has now seen over 600 engineers.  Those attending come from a variety of organisations including consultants, contractors, project managers, facility managers, quantity surveyors and end users.

The main reason for the success of these training programmes is that firstly they cover new air conditioning terminal systems and secondly each session in the training room is followed by a visit to the laboratory where the actual system is demonstrated and tested.  This second part of the training programme provides a unique opportunity to see the system operating usually in a specially created mock up area.  By doing this the principles discussed in the training room can then be visualised in the laboratory.  Also to see the actual components that go into the system first hand helps to bring out all the salient features.

In Box 1 there is a summary of organisations that have attended and in Box 2 we have included some of the comments we received verbally or in the questionnaire at the end of the training day.

The one day training course covers 5 main areas which may be summarised as follows:-

CHILLED BEAMS

Main principles of active and passive beams, together with the advantages and disadvantages.

A detailed technical analysis on how beam performance has been improved and how lower air volumes can be used to achieve the same cooling loads.

Review the progression that has taken place over the past 5 years and how the various styles of multi service chilled beams have changed from project to project with details of the most up-to-date installation.

Demonstration on the new high capacity top discharge MSCB within the TROX Technical Centre.

FAN COIL UNITS

Brief review of the total system approach which includes fan coils, downstream ducting and diffusers, together with guarantees on performance.

Presentation on energy issues relating to airside and how the product has been designed to meet the new Part L legislation, variable air volume fan coil units utilising EC motors.

Review of energy issues relating to this system and how they have been measured on two major projects in the City.

Demonstration of new airside damper mechanism.

Review of test facility where VAV/FCU’s have undergone testing for precise energy consumption.

AIR DISTRIBUTION

Review principles of displacement, mixed flow and high induction diffusers.

Review air distribution of large areas such as shopping malls, using both displacement and jet nozzles.

Air Distribution Test.

CO₂  COOLING  - Data Centres

Technical presentation on CO₂  system for cooling data centres.

Detailed explanation of how the system operates, the benefits and energy issues.  

CO₂ COOLING - Dealer Desks

A technical presentation that will demonstrate how CO₂ can be used to absorb high loads within a dealer desk  environment to  achieve a higher  level of comfort.  The  system includes  primary chiller plant and distribution pipework through to the trading floors.

The presentations will be followed by laboratory tests on the CO₂ OLrac with a full description of the operation of the refrigeration and heat rejection cycle, and a typical dealer desk situation which is currently being carried out for a major company in the City.

Exclusive Academy days which are tailored to an organisation’s needs can be arranged, one such example was organised with WSP and was attended by twenty engineers from WSP London, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds.   The programme for the day was specially designed for WSP and it focused on new energy saving terminal air conditioning systems.

An area that both companies are working on through TROX Academy is a joint development on the energy saving resulting from VAV fan coils.  Although the work is still ongoing and will not be fully signed off for a couple of months the results so far were reviewed and showed some significant savings in carbon emissions.

John Hinton, Director,  WSP London, said, “We discussed the training programme with TROX Academy and adjusted the format to suit our specific requirements.  We invited engineers from around our regional offices since we felt there would be a good cross section of opinions.  We are particularly attracted to this form of ‘industry training’ since the engineers get the opportunity of seeing tests and demonstrations in the TROX Technical Centre, to complement their technical skills.  This ‘hands on’ approach is extended to the factory where there is an opportunity to see these new products and systems actually being manufactured”.

The slogan for TROX Academy is – “Exchanging knowledge and skills from research, system development and experience”.  The emphasis during the training is very much on “exchanging”- particularly views and new ideas and making the whole training process interactive.

 It doesn’t stop with just training, through the TROX Academy new ideas could be developed and applied to specific projects.

The offer by TROX Academy is to develop any viable ideas on new systems or products that participants may have with payment of the appropriate fees.  Now there’s a challenge for all of you – let us know of any ideas you would like TROX to review and possibly develop.

BOX 1

BOX 2

Everyone found the day both interesting and very useful so much so could you please think of us if you are repeating the exercise  -  P J Craig, Regional Director Faber Maunsell

I thought that the speakers were very knowledgeable and that the lab demonstrations were a unique and worthwhile addition – they backed up the theory very well – T Sargent, Partner, RPP

Excellent facilities and delivery of information in a comfortable arrangement;  practical demonstrations particularly useful – P Jailler, Bovis Lend Lease

One of the best planned and set up training days Ihave been non and the good mix of classroom and workshop/lab was just superb – David Greenwood

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