What Do You Learn in HVAC School?

HVAC is short for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. The HVAC technicians repair and install systems that regulate air quality inside a building. The technicians mainly work with commercial and residential buildings. There is scope for independent contract work by owning their own company as well as working for larger construction companies. Mostly the technicians focus on only one specific piece of equipment, and some will rather focus on installing new equipment rather than repairing existing systems.

Course Structure

HVAC courses are designed in a way that enables entry-level and working engineers to understand the basics, different systems used in Air Conditioning for domestic and commercial purposes. The courses generally focus a lot more on analytical skills and updated knowledge on systems designs. The training helps in applying the academic knowledge to the development of solution-driven concepts and translate them into a complete set of plans.

The typical HVAC courses can have the following topics:

• Fundamentals
• Modes of Heat Transfer
• Basic Refrigeration System or Vapor Compression Cycle
• Function and Types of Compressor
• Function and Types of Evaporator
• Working of Split A/C with Line Diagrams
• Working of Window A/C with Line Diagrams
• Working of Ductable Package A/C with Line Diagrams
• Categories of Air-Conditioning
• Study of Psychometric Charts
• Load Calculation
• Air Distribution System
• Hydronic System
• VRF/VRV System
• Ventilation Systems

These are only a few of the courses that are taught in the HVAC training institute. Of course, the list will vary depending on the institute, but the general course structure remains mostly the same everywhere. The above-mentioned courses are the basic and core elements of the HVAC training and one has to complete all of the courses to be eligible for employment.

Eligibility

The Eligibility depends on the type, of course, one wants to apply for. In case of a three-month certificate course, graduation in Pharma, Medical, Biomedical, Biotechnology, Microbiology, and Science is required. Whereas, a student who qualified for their class 10 exam can apply for the two-years air-conditioning and refrigeration engineering program. For the twelve-months of air-conditioning and refrigeration technician course, one has to pass class IX.

Scope and Career

There are many different fields in HVAC one can possibly work at. To be precise, there are five main categories for the job, Designing, Drafting, Execution, Maintenance, and Technician. The kind of job you can secure depends mainly on your qualification and degree. Further, there is a number of places where you can work. Taking the example of air-conditioning, it is divided into two categories- industrial and comfort. Under industrial air-conditioning, you can find jobs at manufacturing units, power plants, refineries, R&D labs and more. Under comfort air-conditioning, which is further divided into residential, commercial, and recreational, you can find jobs are hotels, clubs, theatres, hospitals, apartments, hostels, supermarkets, and much more.

From this, we can understand that HVAC is a technical course that mostly does not need too much background knowledge on the subject. However, if you want to work at designing, drafting, or execution, you will require a more intensive engineering program. Overall, there is plenty of scope for work since most places these days require air-conditioning and refrigeration.