RETA Breeze May-June 2022

training they receive - must follow suit. The support received by the college is an indication that the industry agrees. One trade organization, the Refrigerating Engineers and Technicians Association (RETA) and its membership, comprised of manufac- turers, contracting firms and engineers, take the commitment to support the school seriously, and has been heavily involved with funding and curriculum development. Due to RETA’s support and that of their chapters and members, Thaddeus Stevens College is able to provide an education that’s unique in the Mid-Atlantic region. For example, RETA’s chapter and GEA donated an ammonia chiller to the school. “Initially, when the chiller was donated, our plan was to use it to cool this facility while also using it for training purposes,” said Timothy Strunk, HVAC/R Instructor. “We later learned that we couldn’t use an ammonia chiller due to our proximity to an elementary school. So GEA turned it into a cut-away.” “Despite being inoperable as part of the cooling system, the chiller controls are fully functional as a dry training unit,” he contin- ued. “The indicator lights are functional, and it’s piped and wired to a pair of evaporator coils donated by EVAPCO. We can perform most functions, like running it through a defrost cycle. Students can see the coil fans shut off. Many times, when students go through HVAC/R training programs, there are no chillers to train on, especially ammonia chillers. This is one way we can teach commercial/industrial cooling in a hands-on manner.” Heat rejection EVAPCO, a RETA member, also aided the college on the heating side of the program. With more than 30 live-fire training boilers, heat must go somewhere. The training boilers are used to heat the facility during the heating season. Through the rest of the year, when there’s no call for space heat, BTUs must be rejected – the questions was: to where? All the boilers,and several other pieces of refrigeration equipment, are piped to a main heat reclamation loop. Once the reclamation loop is 100 percent complete, all waste heat will be rejected through a 600 MBH, closed- circuit EVAPCO eco-Air dry cooler with adiabatic pre-cooling. EVAPCO provided this air-cooled fluid cooler to support the HVAC system loads of their expanding HVAC/R labs, while also providing

Left: (L-R) Timothy Strunk, HVAC/R Instructor, Steve Flick, RETA treasurer and business developer for Lancaster-based Triangle Refrigeration HVAC, and Barry Walters, HVAC/R Instructor. Above: Steve Flick, RETA treasurer and business developer for Lancaster-based Triangle Refrigeration HVAC

a hands-on learning experience. As dry and adiabatic coolers gain traction in the industrial and HVAC markets, it only made sense to educate students on the latest, most efficient products. “In addition to the learning opportunities, this particular unit was selected due to the installation location and capacity required,” said Alex Smith, EVAPCO regional sales manager. “The school is adjacent to a residential area where minimizing sound levels is a priority. To keep noise levels very low, the cooler is equipped with EC fan assemblies in lieu of NEMA assemblies.” The adiabatic system specified for the college maximizes the cooling capacity allows flexibility in capacity control when the HVAC system loads fluctuates. Including these components provides students

hands-on experience with technologies not typically found on conventional commercial and industrial systems. The benefit of the eco-Air type of system is that when outdoor ambient temperatures become too high to achieve the desired leaving fluid temperature set-point in dry mode, the adiabatic pre-cooling system is actuated to cool the entering air to maintain set-point. This offers maintenance benefits and saves water, while increasing the cooling capacity available within the footprint allotted for a fluid cooler. The heat reclamation system was partially funded by grants from Tyson Foods, in add- ition to financial support from RETA and equipment donations from EVAPCO and Danfoss.

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