Exploring Alternative Energy

Students from the Alternative Energy class showed members of HCC’s Board of Trustees two solar hot water heaters they built at the September Board Meeting recently. Pictured are Bob Staggs and Scott Howe with the heaters. Both can heat 5 to 7 gallons of water from 73 degrees to 140-160 degrees in 3 hours. Pictured left is a Thermosyphon Solar Heater which cycles water through the coils but has no moving parts. A batch heater, pictured right, heats all the water at once in a tank. Special thanks to Blue Ridge Glass for help on this project.

Machining Remembers 9/11

Dale Haddock and his Tuscola High School machining students remember 9/11 at HCC's Regional High Technology Center. 

Solar Concentrator Heats up the Haywood County Fair

Josh Knight and Bryan Ray adjust the solar concentrator at the Haywood County Fair.  Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems, are systems that use mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. Electrical power is produced when the concentrated light is converted to heat which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator.

Solar energy is just one of the topics in their class, ALT 120 Alternative Energy, in the EET program at Haywood Community College.  The class is currently building solar hot water units. 

Welding Student Dustin Cornelison Wins Sequoyah Fund Community College Business Plan Competition

Dustin Cornelison turned his belief in living a sustainable and frugal lifestyle into an award winning business plan. Drawing upon his past experience as a sustainability technician for an environmental education center and his acquired skills as a welder and blacksmith, Cornelison, along with his wife Sara Martin, have implemented a plan to turn their farm, Two Trees, into a model of sustainable practices. “We are selling the farm life style,” he said. “We hope to demonstrate self sufficiency and furnish people with the tools and knowledge to live off their own land.”
HCC Student Dustin Cornelison Wins Sequoyah Fund Community College Business Plan Competition

Machining instructors Dale Haddock, Keith Siske and Doug Cabe, and students Zeb Ross and Justin Bechtold, review the memorials in front of the Shook House for the Haywood County Confederate soldiers that died during the Civil War. The HCC machine shop made the memorials for the Sons of Confederate Veterans as a student project. Derrick Shipman (also pictured) conceived the project and partnered with HCC to machine and engrave each memorial.

"Green Home" is looking green!

The research demonstration house on campus is shaping up nicely. Feel free to drop by anytime to check out the work in progress. The home can be accessed by "Research House Road" the road out of the back of the Auto Body and Auto Mechanics parking lot. The college owns nearly 20 additional acres that are private and beautiful this spring.

Collision Repair and Refinishing Technology - PT Cruiser

Scott Strubeck latest work in HCC's AutoBody class is this PT Cruiser.  Scott refinished the top half of the car black, along with the grille.  The new clearcoat that was applied over the black was sanded and buffed out to a flawless finish.  The silver (factory paint) was buffed also to freshen up the finish of it to look good against the black.  He then added the red pinstripe between the two colors, restored the headlights, detailed the car, and polished the wheels.  The car was done for Singleton's Automotive in Canton, NC.

Regional High Tech Center featured in the Mountaineer

The Regional High Tech Center featured in the Mountaineer -

“Hands-on” might as well be the mantra for the Regional High Technology Center, which serves as home to many of the classes taken by students like Brown, as well as a resource for local businesses that use applied advanced technology....the center is one-of-a-kind — not just in the area but also in the state."

Read the entire article at

http://www.themountaineer.com/center-provides-%E2%80%98hands-on%E2%80%99-learning-4298