Page 30 - BusinessWest June 10, 2024

BUILDING TRADES >>
Energy for Change
HVAC Field Continues to Evolve with the Times
30
JUNE 10, 2024 << BUILDING TRADES >>
BusinessWest
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
Dr. Fahad Khan said the HVAC program at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) has been around since the 1960s.
“Many in the field around here went to STCC at some point,” said Khan, a professor in
the college’s Engineering department. “It’s a legacy program.”
It’s also a program that has seen plenty of change and evolution over the years — which has only accelerated in the past decade or so.
Take, for example, an associate degree added in 2019 that focuses on building automation and control systems. Or advances in fuel, such as the emergence of biodiesel.
“Things have evolved a lot since the 1970s; boilers have improved in efficiency,” Khan said.
“We still have to use combustion; some people hope that, in the next 10 years, we won’t need to use combustion for heat, but that’s probably too optimistic.”
But changes are already emerging, said Scott Cernak, owner of Western Mass Heating, Cooling & Plumbing in Haydenville.
“The big change in the past few years is the initiative to convert people from fossil fuels to heat-pump technology, or anything electric-driven,” Cernak said, citing a broad push among govern- ment leaders in Massachusetts to move toward decarbonization through climate-technology invest- ments and programs like Mass Save.
“People who have the money and care about the environment enough to do it are going to heat pumps — whole-house conversions, partial conver- sions, a lot of it driven by Mass Save rebates and tax incentives as well. It’s been about a decade- long push, but especially strong over the last two to three years.”
“The big change in the past few years is the initiative to convert people from fossil fuels to heat-pump technology,
or anything electric-driven.”
Professor William Halloran teaches HVAC students at STCC.