While most people are gearing up for the winter weather with warm clothes and jackets, one high school teacher is hoping to teach his students about the ins-and-outs of a homeowner’s winter lifeline, also known as the HVAC system.
According to the Free Press Standard, Matt McGraw, a certified HVAC-R contractor, is Carrollton High School’s Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration class instructor. His goal with the class is to help his students learn everything they need to know about their possible future careers in the field. He teaches them the importance of having HVAC units serviced every year, and that it’s crucial to have your filters changed every three months. In fact, Energystar.gov says most HVAC filters must be changed every one to three months.
McGraw spoke with the Free Press Standard about the class and what he teaches.
“It could be dangerous if your filter is dirty. Not only for the health of the house, but the unit could overheat and be a fire hazard,” McGraw said.
McGraw tells his students that it’s a good idea to check a furnace’s filter during the month of December, as it’s colder outside. McGraw’s students have learned so much from their teacher. For example, Joshua Davala is one of the students in his class.
“You want to maintain your unit so when it does get cold, it’s not dying or failing in the middle of winter – because then I’ll have to go fix it,” Davala said.
McGraw has been teaching the program at the school for a year, and he’s already preparing for a lab renovation to utilize more resources with his students. This renovation will include a fresh paint job and four new heating and air conditioning systems for training purposes. McGraw says it’s important to keep updating his way of teaching, as the field changes constantly.
“Our industry changes every 2-3 years. We’re continually updating a lot of the equipment. Now, a lot of the furnaces have wi-fi. We’ll have a mix of new and old stuff so they (the students) understand what they are going to see in the workforce,” McGraw said.