Solar Thermal Installers and Technician Install or repair solar energy systems designed to collect, store, and circulate solar-heated water for residential, commercial or industrial use.
Solar Thermal Installers and Technician is Also Know as
In different settings, Solar Thermal Installers and Technician is titled as
- Installer
- Solar Energy Technician
- Solar Hot Water Installer (SHW Installer)
- Solar Installer
- Solar Maintenance Technician
- Solar System Installer
- Solar Technician
- Solar Thermal Installer
Education and Training of Solar Thermal Installers and Technician
Solar Thermal Installers and Technician is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Solar Thermal Installers and Technician
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Solar Thermal Installers and Technician
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Solar Thermal Installers and Technician
- Bachelor in Pipefitting/Pipefitter and Sprinkler Fitter
- Associate Degree Courses in Pipefitting/Pipefitter and Sprinkler Fitter
- Masters Degree Courses in Pipefitting/Pipefitter and Sprinkler Fitter
- Bachelor in Plumbing Technology/Plumber
- Associate Degree Courses in Plumbing Technology/Plumber
- Masters Degree Courses in Plumbing Technology/Plumber
- Bachelor in Plumbing and Related Water Supply Services, Other
- Associate Degree Courses in Plumbing and Related Water Supply Services, Other
- Masters Degree Courses in Plumbing and Related Water Supply Services, Other
Training Required for Solar Thermal Installers and Technician
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Solar Thermal Installers and Technician in different industries are
- Solar Photovoltaic Installers
- Solar Energy Systems Engineers
- Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters
- Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers
- Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall
- Geothermal Technicians
- Wind Turbine Service Technicians
- Solar Energy Installation Managers
- Insulation Workers, Mechanical
- Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door
- Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
- Energy Engineers, Except Wind and Solar
- Hydroelectric Plant Technicians
- Boilermakers
- Electricians
- Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairers
- Power Plant Operators
- Biomass Plant Technicians
- Electrical Engineers
- Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters
What Do Solar Thermal Installers and Technician do?
- Design active direct or indirect, passive direct or indirect, or pool solar systems.
- Perform routine maintenance or repairs to restore solar thermal systems to baseline operating conditions.
- Apply operation or identification tags or labels to system components, as required.
- Assess collector sites to ensure structural integrity of potential mounting surfaces or the best orientation and tilt for solar collectors.
- Connect water heaters and storage tanks to power and water sources.
- Determine locations for installing solar subsystem components, including piping, water heaters, valves, and ancillary equipment.
- Fill water tanks and check tanks, pipes, and fittings for leaks.
- Identify plumbing, electrical, environmental, or safety hazards associated with solar thermal installations.
- Install circulating pumps using pipe, fittings, soldering equipment, electrical supplies, and hand tools.
- Install copper or plastic plumbing using pipes, fittings, pipe cutters, acetylene torches, solder, wire brushes, sand cloths, flux, plastic pipe cleaners, or plastic glue.
- Install flat-plat, evacuated glass, or concentrating solar collectors on mounting devices, using brackets or struts.
- Install heat exchangers and heat exchanger fluids according to installation manuals and schematics.
- Install monitoring system components, such as flow meters, temperature gauges, and pressure gauges, according to system design and manufacturer specifications.
- Install plumbing, such as dip tubes, port fittings, drain tank valves, pressure temperature relief valves, or tanks, according to manufacturer specifications and building codes.
- Install solar collector mounting devices on tile, asphalt, shingle, or built-up gravel roofs, using appropriate materials and penetration methods.
- Install solar thermal system controllers and sensors.
- Test operation or functionality of mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and control systems.
- Apply ultraviolet radiation protection to prevent degradation of plumbing.
- Apply weather seal, such as pipe flashings and sealants, to roof penetrations and structural devices.
- Cut, miter, and glue piping insulation to insulate plumbing pipes and fittings.
- Demonstrate start-up, shut-down, maintenance, diagnostic, and safety procedures to thermal system owners.
Qualities of Good Solar Thermal Installers and Technician
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Solar Thermal Installers and Technician
- Acetylene torches
- Adjustable hand wrenches
- Adjustable widemouth pliers
- Caulking equipment
- Channel lock pliers
- Charging pumps
- Claw hammers
- Cordless drills
- Crimping lugs
- Desktop computers
- Diagonal cutting pliers
- Digital multimeters
- Digital refractometers
- Directional compasses
- Drill bit sets
- Extension ladders
- Fall arrest harnesses
- Fiberglass extension ladders
- Filter masks
- Forklifts
- Global positioning system GPS receivers
- Hacksaws
- Handheld calculators
- Hole cutters
- Impact drills
- Inclinometers
- Jig saws
- Laptop computers
- Large pipe wrenches
- Medium pipe wrenches
- Needlenose pliers
- Pair of dykes
- Personal computers
- Phillips head screwdrivers
- Pipe taps
- Protective gloves
- Protractors
- Putty knives
- Rat tail files
- Reciprocating saws
- Right-angle drills
- Safety glasses
- Small pry bars
- Socket wrench sets
- Solar analysis systems
- Solarimeters
- Soldering equipment
- Steel measuring tapes
- Straight screwdrivers
- Stud locators
- Tin snips
- Torpedo levels
- Transfer pumps
- Trenchers
- Tubing benders
- Tubing cutters
- Utility knives
- Utility work machines
- Video probe systems
- Vise grip pliers
- Volt-ohm meters VOM
- Water hoses
- Wire cutters
- Work vans
Technology Skills required for Solar Thermal Installers and Technician
- 1CadCam Unigraphics
- Adobe Photoshop
- Autodesk AutoCAD
- Computer-aided drafting or design software
- Cost estimating software
- Dassault Systemes CATIA
- Dassault Systemes SolidWorks
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications VBA
- Microsoft Word
- National Instruments LabVIEW
- Oracle Java
- Project management software
- PTC Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire
- Salesforce software
- Word processing software
- Work scheduling software