Vendors were pleased with the turnout of almost 1000 attendees at Wolseley’s inaugural One Tradeshow, held April 1 at the Mississauga Convention Centre.
“The turnout has been awesome,” said Don Murfin, district sales manager of engineered products for Grundfos. “For an event this size, the amount of contractors that have been through here is surprising. It’s been very, very good.”
For Murfin, the overarching goal from a vendor’s standpoint was to answer any questions that industry technicians may have about the products they use. “Parts are changing very quickly, so the technical aspects are changing constantly,” he said. “It’s been interesting talking to the guys who work the field.”
In addition to a Western-themed dinner, attendees also had the opportunity to take in half a dozen training sessions with topics ranging from the “Dos” and “Don’ts” of hydronic installation to finding low global-warming alternatives for refrigerants.
Troy Locke, a New Hampshire-based technical trainer for Viega LLC, found the hydronics seminar to be a good checklist to make sure systems are designed properly. He outlined a number of tips that hydronics seminar speaker Craig Demaray brought up.
“He really hit home on good things about not just going in and swapping a boiler out for what you see,” Locke said. “Understand the system, ask questions of the customer – because they might not be happy with a system. And if you don’t ask, you don’t know. I thought it was a really good presentation.”
During the session on refrigerants, Honeywell global technical marketing manager Ron Vogl highlighted the importance of picking the right refrigerants for the right systems to maximize efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
“Using known technology that is simple and serviceable, and at the same time, picking a refrigerant that has a reduced GWP? Well, then I’ve got a pretty good environmental solution,” he said in an interview. “If I just take a lower GWP refrigerant and put it into an inefficient system, it’s still not environmentally a great solution.”
Additional sessions included Gastite Certification, Lifebreath HRV Knowledge, Systems 636 Flue Gas Training and Hydronics versus Variable Refrigerant Flow.
