Abbott Tech Students Make One Newtown Resident’s Home ‘Green’

By Eliza Hallabeck

Henry Abbott Technical High School students were wrapping up work on installing a geothermal heating and air conditioning system on Reed Intermediate School nurse Pat Philipp’s property on Tuesday, March 20.

“The students did everything,” said Henry Abbott Tech teacher and Newtown resident Bill Clark.

From setting the equipment, fabricating and installing duct work, installing grills and registers, installing thermostats, and more, Mr Clark said the students who worked on the project experienced a full range of the effort involved.

Mr Clark also said students in his and Dan DiLernia’s classes at the high school finish roughly five projects of this size each year, and another unrelated project on Cemetery Road in Newtown has already begun.

The geothermal heating and air conditioning system installed for use for a condo space in a barn on Mrs Philipp’s property, Mr Clark said, circulates heat between the ground and the house, using a water source heat pump system.

Water is sent about 375 feet down into the earth, Mr Clark explained before the meeting on Monday, and brought back up.

“By going down into the earth and back up again it is able to give off heat or absorb heat for use with the heating and air conditioning system,” he said.

Other projects recently completed in Newtown include installing a hydro air system and a hybrid system that combined a heat pump system and an oil fired furnace, according to Mr Clark.

Students taking classes in the heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) department at Henry Abbott Tech are trained in all aspects of the field, Mr Clark said. Together, Mr Clark and Mr DiLernia make up the department.

Juniors and seniors studying in the department are on the road every day working on projects. Mr Clark said roughly 12 to 16 students work on one project at a time, depending on the day.

Mr DiLernia said installing the geothermal heating and air conditioning system gave good exposure to the ninth and tenth grade students who assisted on the project.

“It was a great project for a green tech project,” Mr DiLernia said.

Projects completed by the HVAC department are billed at lower rates than average construction work, and the client pays for the materials directly. Mr Clark said 60 to 80 percent of the labor costs associated with a project are put back into the shop at Henry Abbott Tech.

If people are interested in learning more about having the Henry Abbott Tech Heating HVAC department complete a project Mr Clark said they can call 203-797-4460 and dial extension 4458 to reach the department.

“I learned so much from this project,” said Henry Abbott Tech 11th grade student Mike O’Sullivan.

Mike said he spent the full couple months of the project learning different aspects of installing a geothermal heating and air conditioning system. Students, according to Mike, rotate working through the project to become as experienced as possible.

“I feel it is a better way to learn,” said Mike.

Fellow 11th grade student Andrew Chuisano said he worked mainly on the part of the system that supplies the entire upstairs of the residence with heat.

“That was a huge project,” Andrew said.

Mrs Philipp said on Monday that the project went very well.

She even got to meet some of the students while the project was underway.

“They were well mannered and really into what they were doing,” said Mrs Philipp. 

After speaking with the students, Mrs Philipp said she learned all of the students had plans to continue working in the field after graduation and some mentioned studying environmental engineering.

“It was fun meeting a former student who I knew well when he was here at Reed Intermediate School,” said Mrs Philipp. “I think that projects like these are a wonderful way for the students to really learn and experience the field that interests them.”

“They experience it from start to finish and see their completed job,” Mrs Philipp said, “and they have provided me with a brand-new, environmentally friendly heating and air conditioning system.”