Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration

The HVAC/R technician will learn to do both installation, repair, and service work for heating, cooling, and refrigeration equipment. The heating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration systems have many mechanical, electrical and electronic components such as motors, compressors, fans, pumps, thermostats, and switches.

HVAC/R technicians will diagnose and correct problems in central heating and cooling systems using special tools and test equipment. They learn to use voltmeters, thermometers, pressure gauges, manometers, and various other testing devices. Technicians will also use a variety of tools including pipe cutters and benders, electric drills, and acetylene torches.

HVAC/R is a career field that is growing fast and offers many opportunities. Employment in heating could include small residential jobs as well as commercial jobs which involve maintaining boiler systems on swimming pools to heating of paint booths in auto body repair shops. In ventilation, you may customize and fabricate duct work for homes as well as complex exhaust systems in restaurants. Air-conditioning jobs may range from troubleshooting residential air-conditioning to keeping electronics cooled in cell phone towers. And in refrigeration, there are multiple opportunities ranging from working on restaurant equipment to setting up ice rinks for hockey games or ice skating; semi-truck transport refrigeration is also a growing field where companies like Thermo King and Carrier may require refrigeration technicians.

All technicians who work with refrigerants must be certified by passing a written examination. Regulations prohibiting the discharge of CFC and HCFC refrigerants took effect in 1993, and regulations banning CFC production became effective in 2000. These regulations should continue to result in demand for technicians to replace many existing systems or modify them to use new environmentally safe refrigerants.