The national certification standard for the ground source heat pump (GHP) industry was developed as an industry consensus standard under U.S. Department of Energy Assistance Agreement DE-EE0002971 with funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The project was managed by the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium, in partnership with the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association at Oklahoma State University, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Building Technologies Research and Integration Center. Outstanding assistance was also provided by the National Ground Water Association, the Association of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Colorado Geo Energy & Heat Pump Association, and Meline Engineering Corporation, as well as countless other GHP industry professionals who contributed their time and expertise to the content of the standard.
The standard was developed by a consensus process that solicited information and input from a variety of industry stakeholders, and is based on a nationally-recognized competency regimen developed in conjunction with professional and trade organizations, product manufacturers, and government regulatory authorities. It is based on industry best practices for system design and installation, to provide the highest level of system performance, quality and safety.
Personnel qualifications apply to each separately identifiable task undertaken in the design, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance of a GHP system, and are associated with a professional discipline performed by the person(s) who accomplish each task. Depending on the specific circumstances of each GHP project, various tasks may be accomplished by the same person. In order to make the standard useful in actual GHP project settings, training and certification processes that use the standard as a foundation may combine tasks into broader certification classifications.
- Ground Source Heat Pump System Project Manager
- Ground Source Heat Pump System Engineer/Designer
- Geological Formation Thermal Properties Tester
- Ground Source Heat Pump System Commissioning Agent
- Vertical Loop Driller
- Horizontal Directional Driller
- Ground Heat Exchanger Grouter
- Ground Heat Exchanger Looper
- Ground Source Heat Pump System Water Well Driller
- Ground Source Heat Pump System Water Well Pump Installer
- Ground Source Heat Pump Mechanical System Installer
- Ground Source Heat Pump System Operations/Maintenance Technician
- Ground Source Heat Pump System Inspector/Regulator
- Ground Source Heat Pump System Trainer
DOE Source File: http://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/1116539