Compared
DrawWarm vs a training rig
In short
A training rig is physical parts at mains voltage on a board: terminals you tighten, cable you strip. DrawWarm is the circuit on a screen, one per learner, with a meter and call-outs that reset in a click. The rig teaches the feel of the job; the simulator teaches the circuit, every day, to everyone at once. Keep the rig.
Side by side
| A training rig | DrawWarm | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Physical parts at mains voltage, wired on a board, usually one per classroom, under supervision. | A heating wiring and fault-finding simulator: wire S-Plan, Y-Plan and combi controls yourself, switch on, test with the meter, find the fault. |
| How many can use it | One or two learners at a time; the rest watch. | Every learner has their own, at once, on the PC in front of them. One Sandbox seat on a projector shows the whole class. |
| Faults | Whatever the tutor wired in, once. Resetting means rewiring. | Fault Vault jobs and Random Fault: one hidden fault at a time, reset in a click, scored. |
| Safety | Mains voltage: supervised, isolated, checked, never unattended. | Nothing in the simulator is live. Wire it wrong, switch it on, find out why, and try again. |
| Evidence of practice | The tutor’s eyes, on the day. | Stars per lesson, scores on unit checks and fault rounds, on each learner’s signed record. Group reports on the website switch on with the first organisation licences. |
| Cost | A capital purchase, plus the room it lives in and the parts it uses up. | Sandbox seats £29 a person a month, billed by the year, with 5, 10 and 15 per cent off above 15, 30 and 50 seats. Full-version seats £2,490 a seat a year at launch for a pack of 10, less per seat in larger packs, down to £1,992 at 50 seats. No VAT is added. |
| Where it lives | The workshop, during the timetabled slot. | Any laptop or desktop with a browser: the classroom, the library, home. |
| What it cannot do | Be everywhere, or be wrong safely. | Teach the feel of a terminal screw or a stiff conductor. That is the rig’s job. |
Where a training rig is better
- The physical skill: stripping, terminating, the feel of a valve head, the discipline of isolating and proving dead.
- Assessment that awarding bodies recognise. A practical observation happens on a rig.
- Physical parts from the makers, which is what the learner will meet on site.
Where DrawWarm is better
- Every learner does every exercise, not one learner while the rest watch.
- Faults on demand, one at a time, scored, with no rewiring between learners.
- The other four days of the week: practice between rig sessions, at home, the night before an assessment.
- A record of every exercise each learner has completed, with scores, before they get to the rig.
Both? The rig for the physical skills and the observed assessment; DrawWarm for the repetitions that make the circuit automatic, so learners arrive at the rig with a better and safer understanding.
Questions
Can DrawWarm replace our rig?
No, and it is not meant to. It replaces the waiting: the rest of the class watching while one learner wires. The rig stays for the physical skills and the observed assessment.
Does it teach the same wiring the rig does?
Yes: S-Plan and Y-Plan from a bare wiring centre, the combi with a wireless stat, the wiring-centre numbering the lessons use, and the multimeter on every terminal.
What does a college need to run it?
A laptop or desktop per learner with a mouse, a browser with WebGL 2 and WebAssembly, broadband for the first download, and a path to drawwarm.com, sim.drawwarm.com and api.drawwarm.com. The system check page tests a PC in a minute and prints the allow-list for IT.
Practise it in the simulator.
Runs in the browser on a laptop or desktop. Cancel any time.