John Siegenthalers On Line Course

I just signed up to be a guinea pig for his first on line hydronics course. I need PDHs for my license and would rather do the course at my schedule then go to a week long course.

https://www.heatspring.com/courses/..._email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=question

Compared to other PDH offerings its actually good deal but not something a homeowner would most likely invest in, although I expect if they were planning an building a system they could probably end up with a system that works right out of the box.

Week two so far, its looking like 5 hours a week is somewhat optimistic. I think I am going to have them see about upping the number of PDHs. Its obvious that he is planning to go in deep on the subject. The videos are interesting and well done.

I am picking this up where I left off months ago. I have just completed the course despite the official end date back in May.

My overall rating of this course is excellent for those who want in depth understanding of the hydronic heating system design and lot of the newer design approaches. I expect few if any household systems of a typical hearth.com member approach the current level of hydronic design. The presentation is extensive and well laid out and if you use the accompanying text it should be something that someone with a technical education can follow and apply. There are references to the John's software frequently but its mostly used as a time saver, I.E. he goes through the theory "by hand" and then uses the software to illustrate concepts and speed up the presentation. The course includes a trial version of the software but if someone is planning to go into the business, the software is the way to go. The homework makes you think. If someone wants to transition from some other technical field into high end residential and commercial hydronic design they would be hard pressed to find a better course. For those already in it, I expect some is review but other concepts are new. Do note its not an air conditioning course, AC is occasionally mentioned but the purpose of the course is heating.

Its not math intensive but plan on having an excel spreadsheet open on occasion. Its mostly learning and applying concepts. The other thing is that its not a how to install course, John touches on installation details on occasion but if you want to learn how to install tubing this not the course. It more on why you are installing the tubing you are and how to design and optimize the overall system.

I took the course for awareness level as I don't plan to go into the business but am on occasion involved with systems designed by others. One thing I definitely now understand that your typical local heating tech from the local heating company is not trained to this level. I am tempted to strip out my kludge of a system and start from scratch

The one major "caveat emptor" is to those who take courses for PDHs, this online version is definitely not the thing to just to meet your PDH requirements. If you do the required reading, review the recommended downloads to any level of detail, watch the videos, do the homework and then review the correct answers, the hours you expend will far exceed the 24 PDHs assigned to the course. This is not criticism, its just an indication that its an extensive course. This reminded me more of a college course in time commitment The reason I took so long was I busy at work and couldn't sustain the minimum 4 to 8 hours a week for 10 weeks straight which I regard as minimum someone not in the business would require to absorb the material. Its not easy to do one hour at a time so unless I had a free day on a weekend it was hard to do this after a 10 hour day at work. The same course is supposedly offered in person in 3 or 4 day sessions, I wish anyone luck in getting the same understanding supplied by the online course in 3 or 4 day block. I expect the "in person" course is great as John appears to be a great teacher but I expect it would be easy to just show up and get the certificate in person while the online version does require doing the work.