HVAC acquires new unit

By Branson Strasner

Hutchinson Community College offers many vocational classes that allow students to train and get hands-on experience for the professional field they plan to enter.

One of these vocational classes covers the subject of HVAC, which is an acronym for “heating, ventilation and air conditioning.”

Recently the HVAC program was gifted with new technology to work with from Kruse Corporation, a heating and cooling company based in Wichita with an office here in Hutchinson.

Kruse Corporation gave the college several new units called “variable refrigerant flow systems” to use in classes.

When asked about the units, HVAC instructor John Pendergrass gave a brief overview of how the units work.

“These systems allow the consumer to heat and cool different rooms to different temperatures,” Pendergrass said.

Instead of having to heat or cool the entire home, which can be an inefficient waste, the consumer can keep some rooms warm and others cold.

The units are relatively new pieces of technology, which allows for students to practice with technology that will be commonly available by the time they enter the work force.

The students in the Hutchinson Community College program will be able to get their hands on the technology immediately, as they will be the ones to unpack and set up the units in the Industrial Technology Center on campus.

As of Wednesday, the students were in the process of unpacking the units, with just one unit having been set up by March 16.

Being able to get top- of-the-line technology like the variable refrigerant flow systems from Kruse Corporation is a huge step for the tech classes at HCC, Pendergrass said.

It ensures that the students are getting an up-to-date education for whatever field they choose to go into in the HVAC field, he said.

With refrigerant flow systems, energy savings of up to 55% are predicted over comparable air conditioning equipment, according to industry reports.

This also results in greater control of the building’s interior temperature by the building’s occupants, according to an industry publication.

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