A Quality Defect Today Is a Safety Hazard Tomorrow on a Solar Site A lot of sites treat quality and safety like two separate departments, two different clipboards, two different inspectors walking the same row looking for different things. HeatSpring instructor Julie Stiglish thinks that split is part of the problem. In this… Continue reading “A Quality Defect Today Is a Safety Hazard Tomorrow on a Solar Site”
What Solar Manufacturing Can Teach the Job Site About Quality Most people who move into quality management learn it on the construction side, catching problems after they’re already built. HeatSpring instructor Julie Stiglish learned it from the other direction first. Before she was walking utility-scale sites as a quality leader,… Continue reading “What Solar Manufacturing Can Teach the Job Site About Quality”
Safety Pro – A New Badge for Jobsite Safety Fundamentals We just added a new badge to the Pro library: Safety Pro. It’s a bundle of four courses that each address a distinct and common jobsite hazard — material handling, falls, electrical work, and heavy equipment operation. It’s a broadly… Continue reading “Safety Pro – A New Badge for Jobsite Safety Fundamentals”
Going From Electrician to Quality Leader: Julie Stiglish’s Path Into QA/QC Julie Stiglish’s path into quality and safety leadership didn’t start in a classroom or a compliance office. It started in the heat of a Las Vegas summer, wiring up casinos as a journeyman electrician, learning what it actually feels like… Continue reading “Going From Electrician to Quality Leader: Julie Stiglish’s Path Into QA/QC”
New Course: Excavation Safety Training Excavation work is unpredictable by nature. Soil, water, and site conditions shift throughout a project, and the crews who stay safe are the ones trained to catch those changes before they become emergencies. HeatSpring’s new Excavation Safety Training course, taught… Continue reading “New Course: Excavation Safety Training”
12 Moments When Utility-Scale Solar Quality Gets Decided Every utility-scale solar project is full of moments where a defect is cheap to catch and later moments where the same defect can cost ten times as much to fix. It turns out that many quality problems on a solar… Continue reading “12 Moments When Utility-Scale Solar Quality Gets Decided”
STC, NOCT, and NMOT: Sean White Decodes Test Conditions Used on the PV Module Datasheet Every PV module datasheet lists numbers like open-circuit voltage (VOC), max power voltage (VMP), and short-circuit current (ISC), but a module rarely actually operates at any of them. Differences in temperature and sunlight cause voltage and current to skew one… Continue reading “STC, NOCT, and NMOT: Sean White Decodes Test Conditions Used on the PV Module Datasheet”
What’s ASCE 7? Sean White on Calculating Wind, Snow, and Structural Loads When it comes to snow loads, wind loads, and other structural forces on a building, the International Code Council (ICC) codes give you a general framework. To run the actual calculations, like sizing a beam for a specific roof slope,… Continue reading “What’s ASCE 7? Sean White on Calculating Wind, Snow, and Structural Loads”
What’s the Most Common Fall Hazard Mistake – Even Among Experienced Installers? Ask any safety professional what worries them most, and the answer is rarely a hazard workers don’t recognize. It’s the shortcut they know is risky and do anyway. In this Q&A from our Competent Person Fall Protection Training course, Josh… Continue reading “What’s the Most Common Fall Hazard Mistake – Even Among Experienced Installers? “
New Course: Utility-Scale Solar QA/QC Fundamentals Julie Stiglish opens her new course with a story straight out of her own field experience: somewhere on a utility-scale site right now, a two-dollar defect is being installed. Nobody’s doing it on purpose. The crew is good, the weather’s… Continue reading “New Course: Utility-Scale Solar QA/QC Fundamentals”
New Course: Trenching and Shoring Safety Trenching can be some of the most dangerous work on a construction or solar site, and it’s also some of the most routine. Conduit needs to go in the ground. Wire needs to be pulled. Crews dig, lay their lines,… Continue reading “New Course: Trenching and Shoring Safety”
New Course: Forklift Operator Training HeatSpring just launched Forklift Operator Training, a two-hour online course that covers the formal instruction portion of OSHA-required forklift certification. Why take this course Forklifts, or powered industrial trucks, are a staple in countless warehouses and industrial facilities. OSHA requires… Continue reading “New Course: Forklift Operator Training”
Flagger Hand Signals Explained Road construction, utility repairs, and lane closures all rely on flaggers: workers positioned at the edge of a work zone, using a paddle, flag, or flashlight to tell drivers when to stop, when to go, and when to slow down.… Continue reading “Flagger Hand Signals Explained “
Ladder Safety with Sean White Falls are one of the most common hazards on a job site, and ladders are often part of that risk, especially on residential solar installs where you’re going up onto a pitched roof. A few specific practices can go a… Continue reading “Ladder Safety with Sean White”
HeatSpring is the Official PVA & OMAT Training Provider for the 2027 NABCEP Conference We just signed on to be the official PVA & OMAT training provider for the 2027 NABCEP Conference. Sean White is teaching the class. Learners spend three days together at the conference training with Sean. They also get access to… Continue reading “HeatSpring is the Official PVA & OMAT Training Provider for the 2027 NABCEP Conference”
How to Properly Fit a Fall Protection Harness In the hierarchy of fall protection, PPE, sits near the bottom, not the top. Elimination – removing the fall hazard entirely – is always the first line of defense, followed by passive systems, travel restraint, and only then fall arrest.… Continue reading “How to Properly Fit a Fall Protection Harness “
Undefined Terms Can Have Real Consequences: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the NEC Code-Making Process There are words in the National Electrical Code that practitioners use every day without a second thought. “Backfeed” is one of them. What emerged during a Code-Making Panel 4 meeting in the 2026 NEC revision cycle is that even the… Continue reading “Undefined Terms Can Have Real Consequences: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the NEC Code-Making Process”
New Course: Competent Person Fall Protection Training Falls are the number one cause of death in construction and almost every one of them is preventable. That’s the reason this course exists. HeatSpring’s new Competent Person Fall Protection Training, taught by instructor Jenny Conrardy, is now live, and… Continue reading “New Course: Competent Person Fall Protection Training”
New Course: National Flagger Certification HeatSpring has launched a new National Flagger Certification course, part of the HeatSpring CORE: Comprehensive Construction Trades curriculum, designed to prepare flaggers for one of the most high-stakes roles on any job site: standing between moving traffic and the crew… Continue reading “New Course: National Flagger Certification”
How Standards Harmonization Is Making Energy Storage Easier to Permit and Inspect Article 706 on energy storage systems didn’t undergo sweeping changes in the 2026 NEC, but what did shift is worth noting, especially for anyone who has found the permitting and inspection side of ESS work frustrating. Rebekah Hren of Solar… Continue reading “How Standards Harmonization Is Making Energy Storage Easier to Permit and Inspect”