Learning in the
The LEED Platinum Hocking College
Energy Institute serves as a hands-on
learning lab for its students, some of
installed a
geothermal
system off
campus.
Geothermal has a starring role in two newly con- structed buildings in Southeastern Ohio: the Hocking College Energy Institute (HCEI) and a 1,600-sq.;. log home.
The common denominator: Jeff Persons, owner of Geo
Source One Inc., Plain City, Ohio. Persons teaches Ohio’s ;rst
college-level International Ground Source Heat Pump Asso-ciation/North American Technician Excellence (IGSHPA/
NATE) accredited Geothermal Renewable Energy Systems
course at HCEI. Although he was not involved with the HCEI
construction project, Persons did conduct the Institute’s ;rst
hands-on student lab— installing a geothermal system at
the log home. In a neat twist to the story, the homeowner is
Marishka Wile, a professor of anthropology in the Hocking
College School of Arts and Sciences.
HCEI is a LEED Platinum-certi;ed sustainable building
that serves as a learning lab for the college’s 130-plus students
in Hocking College’s Advanced Energy and Automotive
Hybrids program. Hocking College was awarded a $1.6 million grant, which they matched, from the U.S. Department
of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, to
build the facility. Construction took one year and the building opened in September 2009.
