Program Description

The HVAC/R program helps students develop skills in a broad spectrum of service, installation, and maintenance on all types of residential, commercial and industrial heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration equipment. Students are prepared for a variety of careers.

Among the topics covered in the four-year curriculum are hand tools, specialized trade tools, and the manual skills involved in flaring, swaging, and bending copper tubing; the identification and use of brass, copper, steel, plastic, PVC and CPVC and other piping materials; soldering, brazing, and oxyacetylene welding and cutting; basic electrical components; high voltage circuits; electrical wiring diagrams and system mechanical operation; and the designing of HVAC & R systems through the use of software programs.

• U.S. Department of Labor Statistics
• Median hourly earnings of heating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers were $17.43 in May 2004.
• Job prospects in this industry are expected to be excellent.
• Apprentices usually begin at approximately 50 percent of the wage paid to experienced workers.
• (Employment facts from the Occupational Outlook Handbook at www.bls.gov/OCO)

Program Placement
Some places where students have worked: Kool Aire, Tessoro Brothers Heating, Anthony Heating, and Prevett Heating & Cooling.