Nibco Donation Gives Students Hands-On Boiler Training

Nibco Inc. and its Webstone brand donated a custom-built boiler and water heater training board to Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado. The equipment came out of a project called the Community Over Competition Build, shown at the 2026 AHR Expo, which brought together plumbing and HVAC manufacturers, professionals, and industry groups to build hands-on training gear.

Students in the college's HVAC program will use the board starting next semester to practice installing emitters (the radiators or baseboard units that release heat from a hydronic system) and to work with a fully operating boiler and water heater setup in the lab. The instructor overseeing the program said the goal is to give students practical experience with the same kind of equipment they will see on the job.

This is a training and workforce story rather than a homeowner program change. It does not create any new rebate, incentive, or product for homes. The practical connection for homeowners is indirect: donations like this help build a pipeline of technicians trained on boiler and hydronic heating equipment, the kind of systems used in many older homes with radiators or baseboard heat. More trained technicians can eventually mean easier access to service and installation help for these systems, though this particular donation affects one college's classroom, not any national rollout.