POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (KFVS) – The Poplar Bluff Technical Career Center added solar power to its HVAC/R program.
According to a release from the Poplar Bluff R-I School District, solar energy was incorporated into its hands-on curriculum to help make sure students “remain at the forefront of industry advancements.”
Toward the end of last school year, they said instructor Dan Parker showed his students how to install several solar panels on the side of a campus storage building and run wiring to an all-in-one charge inverter connected to batteries that electrify up to 40 AMPS.
According to TCC Director Charles Kinsey, the kit was bought prior with federal Perkins funds, along with ductless mini-split through a Vocational Enhancement Grant.
“Going off the grid is very popular,” he explained, “and sustainable heating and air can be possible to obtain with this setup.”
HVAC/R students, under the instruction of Dan Parker, complete a two-week lesson plan learning how to install a solar energy system on the TCC campus.(Poplar Bluff R-I School District)
Dan Parker started teaching heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration during the 2020/21 school year, and the program has been at capacity for the past couple of years.
“Mr. Kinsey has given me the leeway to make changes for not just our area but the national heating and cooling industry with the extensive traveling I’ve done [for work],” Parker said. He operates his own business after school called: Need Air?
“I try to teach everybody that change is good,” he continued.
While the kit requires a fairly substantial upfront investment, Parker said it should pay for itself within four years.
He said the batteries are designed to last a decade, which equals six years of low cost, according to his research.
As an aside, the solar inverter, manufactured overseas by Seasun Solar, has been charging the internal heater of the diesel bus utilized by the Building Trades program at the TCC.
The mini-split, or air-source heat pump, component of the lesson plan has “improved in quality tremendously” since the late 1990s, according to Parker, who said the outside system is one-third more efficient even at temperatures as low as 14 degrees.
He pointed out how he has personally cut his electric bill by $100 a month to $160, and anticipates it will be reduced to $60/month, once he installs a solar kit after he bought his own unit on Black Friday.
“There’s opinion and there’s fact. Opinion is this is a great idea; fact is it saves the environment by using less fossil fuels, and lowers electric bills,” said junior Alex Vass, who started the two-year program this year. “I view it as an investment, rather than a payment, or maybe one expensive payment, as opposed to monthly.”
Students who finish the program earn EPA 608 and OSHA 10 certifications via nationally standardized testing.
Parker said his job placement rate for students who become certified technicians has been 100 percent. So far, he said he has had past students land HVAC/R jobs in Kansas City, St. Louis and other states including Arkansas and Florida.
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