About
Hello, my name is Ken Clifton. My wife Kathryn and I live on a small 38 acre farm just outside Salisbury, NC with our 10 year old daughter Sarah and our youngest daughter Emma. I earned a Master of Science in Electronic Commerce (MSEC) at the University of Maryland and I am currently doing post graduate work in applied computer systems. My undergraduate degree was in Information Systems from Catawba College, located in Salisbury, North Carolina. I was lucky to get started in IT after earning an associate degree in Business Computer Programming in 1991 from Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in Salisbury, North Carolina. In a previous life, I also earned an aviation degree way back in 1979.
I create software in a variety of languages with the most popular now being PHP. I currently have a very popular plug-in for WordPress that retrieves solar power production from Enphase micro-inverters, aggregates it and renders the production graph and information on the right of this page. That plug-in has been installed at over 60 solar installations in 11 countries.
I am a Full-time Instructor for Computer Information Technology at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College located in Salisbury North Carolina. Before teaching at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, I was a full-time Instructor at Catawba College for four years. I have also served as the Associate Vice President for Technical Services at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. I served for seven years as the Information Systems Manager for the City of Salisbury. I have worked as a programmer / analyst for several different companies such as Panasonic, Fieldcrest Cannon, Central Carolina Bank, and Rowan County. I have also taught Networking, Visual Basic, IBM AS/400 programming, and systems analysis during the evenings at Catawba college.
My entire education has been accomplished at night while working full time and maintaining numerous certifications ( CISSP, MCSE+I, MCSD, MCDBA, MCT, LINUX+, A+, Net+ and CTT+) .
Renewable Energy
My family is real close to having a zero carbon footprint. We heat our home with biomass energy. We use evacuated tube solar thermal to heat our water and we generate about 80 percent of the electricity that we consume using a 5.6 kW solar electric PV system. Please see the renewable energy link to read more.
Social Networking Contact Information
Search for “Ken Clifton” on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter @ken_clifton
Free Time
The combination of two young children and a small farm pretty much negate any free time. When opportunities present themselves I enjoy spending time with my wife, Kathryn and daughters Sarah and Emma. I am in my 6th year of restoring a John Deere tractor.
About 10 years ago I planted some experimental Hybrid American Chestnut trees. I lost about ten of the trees in the Winter of 2004. So far about 35 are living. We harvested about 1,600 chestnuts this fall. If you want to know more about chestnuts please click the leaf graphic.
