HVAC School

HVAC and R as a Career

Posted by: Hvac at May 21st, 2009

There are a lot of jobs that are out there that can almost guarentee you work no matter where you go. Some of these jobs require years of schooling though such as doctors or lawyers, but what about hvac technicians? They do not have to go through no where near as much as schooling as other professions have to go through, true, a doctor or a lawyer will make a lot more money than an hvac technician, but you will save yourself 10 years of schooling and about 100,000 dollars worth of college. If you have the knowledge of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, there is no reason that you cannot land yourself a job, anywhere. Know when I say knowledge, I mean a little  more than having an epa 608 or 609 certification. I mean experience in doing the job, that is what will get the employers attention when it comes time to read that resume. The certifications will help you land that hvac technician job, but will not secure it.

Say that you are competing for the same position, and you competition has the same amount of experience that you do, you have a universal hvac license while your competitor only has a type 1 and 2. Now who do you think is going to land the job? Not counting the past references and stuff as that plays a huge role also.

The thing about being an hvac technician, is that it will not make you rich, but it will guarantee you that there will always be work out there whereever you go. If you are up north where it is cold year round, people will need heat. Whether they have gas or furnace heaters, baseboard heaters, radiant floor heating, they will need someone to install that type of heating system for them. Not only that, more than likely in the next five years, that heating system will fail and then it will have to be servied.

The same goes for down south, the majority of hvac would more than likely be cooling. Unless the installer is perfect with perfect parts, an air conditioning system will always need to be serviced. If you want to make money being an hvac technician, then the best route would be to open your own business. This way you are cutting out the middle man.

Take caution though, if you decide to open up your own hvac business, you better know heatin, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration inside and out. You do not want to have to call someone else in to troubleshoot a problem that you cannot figure out. Not only will this make your business name look bad, as you do not know what the hell you are doing, but it will cost you money. You are the contractor, meaning that there should not be anything that you do not have the ability to fix.

The strongest part of hvac in my opinion would be the refrigeration part. No matter where you live you will need refrigeration to keep food cold and frozen stuff frozen, both up north and down south. Not only that I find it that refrigeration and chillers are the hardest to work on, or in that matter to learn how to work on, but once you get the hang of it they are not that bad. Learning about what kind of refrigerant they use and such can be a pain in the butt.

So if you have already made up your mind that you are going to do manual labor the rest of your life, becoming an hvac technician may be a path that you may want to pursue. You will learn how to fix all sorts of things that many people do not have the slightest clue, if you want to own your very own hvac business, then I would recommend that you have at least 15 years of experience.