Gold Certification
Gold Certification, the highest
awarded by NORA, is for those
wishing to move beyond basic installation
and repair. Gold prepares
technicians to provide systems
analysis, advise customers about
equipment needs, diagnose home
comfort problems and provide
efficiency recommendations.
The Gold program includes eight
modules of advanced training on: Air
Flow, Hydronics, Efficiency, Venting,
Controls, Steam, Oil Tank Installation
& Maintenance as well as the
Building Performance Institute’s
program, Building Science Principles.
To achieve Gold status, technicians
are required to have a NORA Silver
certification, five years of oilheat
field experience and must successfully
complete any four of NORA’s
eight advanced training module
classes.
A training manual for each
advanced module has been
published and can be used when
preparing for a seminar or as a
stand-alone self-learning guide.
As with both the Bronze and Silver,
the Gold Certification is valid for
five years and may be recertified by
achieving 24 NORA CEU’s.
NORA hosts
Technical Workshop
NORA held its second Oilheat
Technical Workshop in September in
in Newport, RI. The workshop was
held in partnership with the
Southern New England Energy
Conference. John Huber, NORA
President, kicked-off the program
describing the workshop’s goals as
providing information on the
progress of NORA R&D programs
and to explore new ideas in an open
forum.
The opening address was given by
Arthur Marin, Director of Northeast
States for Coordinated Air
Use Management (NESCAUM).
NESCAUM is an association of air
quality state agencies in the Northeast
including, Connecticut, Maine,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey,
and New York. Among NESCAUM’s
missions is to assist member states
in implementing national environmental
programs required under
the Clean Air Act and other federal
legislation. Marin presented a vision
for the transition of the Northeast
to carbon-neutral by 2050. This
vision includes a dramatic increase
in renewable electric power production
and a conversion to heat-pump
residential systems. The presentation
underscored the need for the
oilheat industry to plan for renewable
fuels and integrated renewable/
liquid fuel systems.
John Battaglioli, Babington
Technologies, Rocky Mount, NC,
reported on the progress in the
development and commercialization
of the Babington Air-Atomized
burner. Babington’s approach is a
product with capability for modulation,
low firing rates and self-tuning
of air/fuel ratio. This burner is based
on the novel Babington atomizer
that has achieved success as an oil
burner for military cooking applications,
Jason Targoff, Novatio Engineering,
Waltham, MA, gave a presentation
on their vaporizing oil burner which
can, potentially, enable oil to be used
in gas-type appliances.
One of the Workshop sessions was
dedicated to biofuels. Rich Sweetser,
representing NORA, opened with
a review of a recent update to the
analysis of the impact of biofuels
on greenhouse gas emissions. He
showed that at a biodiesel blend
level of about 15% (B15) heating oil
and natural gas are equivalent. At
higher biodiesel blend levels heating
oil scores better than gas.
Dr. Thomas Butcher, NORA Lab
Director, presented the results of
a field study on fuel quality, which
involved sampling from home
tanks with high (20% biodiesel and
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