Certificates

PRESS RELEASE
ASHRAE/AHR EXPO 2005 Orlando, Florida
Bellingham Technical College Student Chapter ASHRAE

Twelve students were selected to represent Bellingham Technical College at the AHR Expo and the ASHRAE winter meeting in Orlando Florida. At the winter meeting we had the opportunity to attend many seminars each morning where a wide array of topics was covered ranging from the history of refrigeration to current and emerging technologies. As students we found these sessions to be extremely informative as they delved into many facets of the HVAC/R industries.

An example was the thermal storage presentation. The speaker talked of how the convention center is cooled from a cooling network that uses chillers that cool a water storage tank at off peak hours. Some of us found this to be of great interest do to the rising power costs in the Pacific Northwest. Some of the seminars were exciting to attend from the stand point of the possibility of working with technologies that were presented.

Our afternoons were spent at the AHR Expo which was located in the Orange County Convention Center where we had the opportunity to visit over 1,800 exhibits. These exhibits encompassed the entire range of the HVAC/R industry, including manufacturers, developers, education and engineers. These companies represented 31 countries from around the globe. As we walked in we were overwhelmed by the shear volume and range of exhibitors. Our instructor encouraged us to ask questions and collect information on the things that interested us and that we deemed pertinent to our education and future employment. The students appreciated the exhibitor’s willingness to share information and answer questions.

The convention gave us an added appreciation for the industry and the possibilities for our futures. We enjoyed all the exhibits but as students we were drawn to the education booths. For example many of us enjoyed an exhibitor’s demonstration of air balancing where you had to position three dampers and a main damper to align three balls in their individual vents. The ability to talk with the vendors on a professional level was an invaluable part of our experience.

Upon our return we spent a morning debriefing with the entire class. We shared our experiences and discussed the seminars and Expo booths that meant the most to us. Our group found it to be a very rewarding experience and hope that future students will take the opportunity to further their education in this way.