Tommorow I am buying the book,cd and test form to take the refrigerant test at the end of the month. I am also buying the textbook my local cc uses and signing up for the course. One night a week for 3 years.
I am looking for great equipment, however I am hoping the top end stuff isnt better than the mid range stuff. If it is fine but I dont want to spend more than I have to. I plan on working for an AC company part time but my goal is residential trouble shooting for my self, I dont really want to do commercial or changeouts. Am I crazy? As a handyman I think it adds to my skills list.
Replies
Some suppliers will only sell to HVAC ticketed guys. When I say ticketed I mean guys who have done their 4-5 year apprenticeship.
The problem with doing it parttime is that you will have thousands of dollars tied up in equipment and making very little money doing it parttime. Plus the many varied parts that are needed to fix the stuff will make you run back and forth to the supplier ( which brings up my first sentence). Parts are very expensive so your diagnosis had better be right because when people lose all their food in a unit you said you just fixed they will be looking for you.
Refrigeration is a very interesting course and the more you learn you will find the less you know.
good luck
roger
my strategy is to only perform work I know- so i begin with cleaning and spring tune ups. The work part time is to have access to a knowledge base and to build experience with the other aspecs. Most companys around here charge 70 bucks an hour plus parts. If I charged 35 bucks I should be able to capture a market share of the cleaning jobs. I am enrolled in the community colleges apprenticeship program which takes 3 years to complete.
Good luck. I don't know how the apprenticeship system works in the states but up here in Canada ( and I think the rest of the world:-)) HVAC apprentices sign up for four or five years ( I forget already) and after that they are journeymen. They go to school about 8 weeks every year while they are employed. Their wages start at about 50% of the journeymen wage and goes up each year. I think in the Toronto area a good refrigeration shop would pay around $40.00 an hours plus benefits. Just think what their charge out rate is.
I went to trade school 8:00am- 4:00pm everyday, five days a week for 9 months where we learned all about refrigeration, electrical circuits and other stuff. Collectivey I have the same amount of time in school as an HVAC BUT I don't have a journeymans ticket which stops me from buying in a lot of suppliers.
Again, good luck. Any course about anything that interests you is always a plus.
roger
This is a prime example of how much you may be losing by not filling in your profile. There are thousands of people reading this board, some of whom would be willing to go out of their way to help you but they need to be met half way.
Not filling in your profile means that you want to remain anonymous, right? You don't want anyone to know where you live, right? But just putting that much information, your city and state, in your profile might be enough to hook you up with just what you're looking for.
Maybe the board moderators should consider making it obligatory to give basic profile information, before posting a question.
Edited 4/30/2007 9:52 am ET by Hudson Valley Carpenter
What kind of profile information would make any difference is a question like this?.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I think he's lookin' for rezs' job.
J. D. ReynoldsHome Improvements
actually when I click the update profile tab I have filled in the information requested. If someone could post a how to access the form everyone is asking about I bet more people would provide the information. just tell me what to do and i will do it.
-worth exactly 2 cents!
<<actually when I click the update profile tab I have filled in the information requested. If someone could post a how to access the form everyone is asking about I bet more people would provide the information. just tell me what to do and i will do it.>>
OK. Your profile is coming up now. It was blank earlier. I hope that it will hook you up with someone fairly close by who can help you get the tools you need.
I dont think people realize that they should click on their name to update their profile for the first time. I clicked on the update profile link and it gave me password etc. I just happened to click on it today and Ive been a member since 04.-worth exactly 2 cents!
I got the ticket, high pressure, low pressure, sealed appliance, and chiller units. The test is hard but passable. The test is made to cover all aspect of refrigeration but if you only do house units and heat pumps you can learn that easy. easy way to learn, find you some junk equipment and take it apart. study each piece. Just here they not no money in HVAC. Hardest job to make money here is HVAC, airplane mech, autocad, computer repair. we have trade school turning out 300 every 90 days. just no open jobs.
want make all the money there is, laying concrete block.
around here i can buy from anyone and no one has ever asked me squat....
if i was going to do what you are i'd go for the change outs... or compressor replacements on 10seer units... everyone here want to replace everything you have "cause it's 10 seer" just cause the compressor is bad... you can take $300 in parts and material and charge $1200 for a days work...
p