What if everybody on your team mastered construction drawings? Construction drawings are the language we use to build and power the world. Engineers and architects get lots of training, but everybody else learns on the fly. Have you been trained in how to read or create construction drawings? If… Continue reading “What if everybody on your team mastered construction drawings?”
What Makes Construction Challenging? Working in construction can be very challenging. Why is this? HeatSpring instructor Amy Powell asks her teammates, colleagues, and trade partners to dive deep to get to the bottom of this question. She found that the majority of the challenges… Continue reading “What Makes Construction Challenging?”
IGSHPA Accredited Installer (AI) Training – LIVE from the 2022 IGSHPA Conference For the second year in a row, Ryan Carda is teaching the IGSHPA Accredited Geothermal Installer course live and in-person at this year’s IGSHPA Conference. It’s a hybrid course, with the majority offered in an online learning environment with the… Continue reading “IGSHPA Accredited Installer (AI) Training – LIVE from the 2022 IGSHPA Conference”
Live Commissioning (Cx) Class with 8 PDHs Launching March 18th If you’re ready for a deep-dive into Commissioning (Cx), Khaled Yousef is ready to give it to you. He’s teaching a one (full) day commissioning course on March 18th. This course has been evaluated and approved by the Practicing Institute… Continue reading “Live Commissioning (Cx) Class with 8 PDHs Launching March 18th”
IGSHPA Accredited Installer (AI) Training – LIVE from the 2021 IGSHPA Conference Ryan Carda is teaching the IGSHPA Accredited Geothermal Installer course live and in-person for the first time in years. Well, technically it’s a hybrid course, with the majority offered in an online learning environment with the last day in-person at… Continue reading “IGSHPA Accredited Installer (AI) Training – LIVE from the 2021 IGSHPA Conference”
Humbly Making an Impact on the Geothermal Industry HeatSpring instructor Ryan Carda doesn’t like to brag about the positive impact he’s had on the geothermal industry. But Brian Hayden, co-founder of HeatSpring, is happy to sing Carda’s praise. “Ryan is the ultimate teacher because he’s so smart and… Continue reading “Humbly Making an Impact on the Geothermal Industry”
Building & Powering an Award-Winning Net Zero Energy Home Can a home be beautiful, powered entirely by solar energy, use sustainable heating and cooling systems and save it’s owners roughly $3,500 a year? Why, yes it can. Just ask Joanne Coons, who built her award winning, single-family, Net Zero Energy… Continue reading “Building & Powering an Award-Winning Net Zero Energy Home”
John Siegenthaler Investigates: Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps: An emerging renewable heat source for North American hydronic systems. Electrically powered heat pumps, in many varieties, are destined to play an increasingly important role in heating and cooling buildings around the world. Heat pumps capture… Continue reading “John Siegenthaler Investigates: Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps”
NYC Sets Precedent for Requiring Geothermal Certifications The New York City Council recently passed local law 0609-A-2015 stating that all new city buildings or city-owned buildings undergoing a HVAC retrofit must use geothermal if the ‘geothermal system has the lowest net present value of all alternatives considered.’ This legislation is… Continue reading “NYC Sets Precedent for Requiring Geothermal Certifications”
10 Reasons to Use LoopLink PRO 10 Reasons to Use LoopLink PRO by Doug Carruthers Looplink PRO is simple, powerful, web-based ground loop design software you can use for just $50/month. Specifically engineered for commercial geothermal designers, LoopLink PRO can handle projects from simple single building… Continue reading “10 Reasons to Use LoopLink PRO”
Residential vs. Commercial Ground Loop Design Software Options In this article, Ryan Carda, HeatSpring instructor and President of Geo-Connections, Inc., shares the differences between residential and commercial ground loop design software. Join his live webinar on August 19th at 10AM Central (see below for details). Geo-Connections, Inc makes web-based ground loop… Continue reading “Residential vs. Commercial Ground Loop Design Software Options”
3 Tax and ITC Considerations for Your Solar Project On the Solar Executive MBA Training Discussion Board… Key Takeaways: Depreciation benefits tend to be far lower than the value of the solar investment tax credit (ITC) If an asset is deemed an “integral” part of the solar PV system then it can… Continue reading “3 Tax and ITC Considerations for Your Solar Project”
3 Reasons Your PV System Load Profile is Overinflated and How to Fix It The article below is a discussion from our course, Batteries in Solar PV Systems, led by Christopher LaForge. Christopher LaForge is the CEO of Great Northern Solar and a NABCEP certified photovoltaic installer. He has been designing, specifying, and installing systems… Continue reading “3 Reasons Your PV System Load Profile is Overinflated and How to Fix It”
Understand the Key Grounding and Bonding Standards for Commercial Solar PV Projects in Less Than 30 Minutes What are the differences between grounding and bonding in solar design? What are the most recent codes? Where are the codes headed? What are some of the changes that have happened? What does it mean for you and your installations? In… Continue reading “Understand the Key Grounding and Bonding Standards for Commercial Solar PV Projects in Less Than 30 Minutes”
AC Coupling – How to Cost Effectively Add Battery Back-up to Existing Grid-Tied Solar PV systems This is a guest article by Chris LaForge. Chris is teaching an in-depth 6-week technical training on designing battery based solar PV systems that starts in September. You can read the full description and get a limited-time discount here. If… Continue reading “AC Coupling – How to Cost Effectively Add Battery Back-up to Existing Grid-Tied Solar PV systems”
How to Normalize Energy Consumption For Weather Influences Using RETScreen ® Plus This is a guest post by Michael Ross from RER Energy Inc. Michael is teaching a 6-week, 30 hour class on Mastering RETScreen for Clean Energy Project Analysis. The class is capped at 50 students, and there are only 30… Continue reading “How to Normalize Energy Consumption For Weather Influences Using RETScreen ® Plus”
SolarPro, HeatSpring, Ryan Mayfield Launch Megawatt Solar Design Class The online technical training experts at HeatSpring have teamed up with photovoltaic design and instruction professional Ryan Mayfield and technical media specialists SolarPro to launch a 10-week online course in megawatt-scale solar PV system design. To learn more about the… Continue reading “SolarPro, HeatSpring, Ryan Mayfield Launch Megawatt Solar Design Class”
5 Perspectives for Using Solar Subcontractors for Residential PV Installation This is a guest post by Fred Paris. Fred teaches our 6 week Solar Startup Accelerator where students get the tools (budgeting, planning, pricing, project management) and business plan they need to start new solar business or solar division within… Continue reading “5 Perspectives for Using Solar Subcontractors for Residential PV Installation”
How to Design Homes to be Solar PV Ready Many homeowners might be building a new home or doing renovations and they want solar, but not right now. The following is a guest post from Jamie Leef, an expert builder and solar installer at S+H Construction that will be… Continue reading “How to Design Homes to be Solar PV Ready”
Real Time Data on Actual Geothermal COPs – Part 2 of Lessons Learned from 100,000 Hours+ of Real Time Geothermal Monitoring Data This is a very nervous time for the geothermal industry and I can feel it when I’m on the phone with installers. There’s a lot of geothermal companies that have been around for 20+ years and now there’s a lot… Continue reading “Real Time Data on Actual Geothermal COPs – Part 2 of Lessons Learned from 100,000 Hours+ of Real Time Geothermal Monitoring Data”