anyone on here work in the hvac field? or go to school for it? and if so, what are your thoughts on it? is it a pain in the ass or a pretty decent job?
also if anyone else has any opinions… i’m thinking of just picking a trade and going to school for that and be done with it…any other recommendations?
depends are you going for design or installation??
my company designs HVAC systems for buildings.
jay…justin does it…remember? :lol:
go union, takes longer, and shitty pay for a few years but then 20-30 an hour
non union in upstate can pay anywhere from 22k-30k
talk to denton he used to dispatch an upstate hvac company
My bro has his own HVAC/Plumbing company.
Pro’s: Tons of cash if you are the boss, meet all kinds of people, different scenery every day.
Con’s: Can be hard work, old furnaces weigh a ton, slave labor if you are not the boss, have to deal with scorching hot attics in the summer, freezing cold of the winter, on call 24/7 if you are a service tech. meet all kinds of crazy people.
I have a buddy that went to Alfred for it, got in a union right out of college. Started kinda low pay and never knowing if hes gonna work. After 3 years with the union hes making $21 and hour and has steady work all year. He also has annual raises every couple months
My bro has been doing it for 10 years or so. Last 4 hes been his own boss. Only started to make good money when he went on his own.
If your gunna do it, either work for a few years to get experience then start up your own operation or go union.
if it were me, i’d join the union and either go into design, or nuclear steamfitter. As a second choice I’d be an inside pipefitter,then outside pipefitter, then HVAC commercial installer, then HVAC service tech, then i might consider being a plumber/turd chaser. I would never work residential and never non union in the northern states.
Different union, but I’d consider being a sheet metal guy too.
Right now, there are a few proposed nuclear PPs down here. There aren’t enough trained people to do all the work. Certs are tough as shit but if you can do that, you can go anywhere and find work.
thanks for the replies everyone :tup: this is exactly the kind of responses i was looking for.
and jon, yea i kinda forgot justins dad did that haha i’ll talk to him later 
I do industrial heat exchangers, we have a division that does industrial food grade refridgeration, we would definitly use some more heat transfer design engineers.
But if your refering to installation of commericial/residential air conditioning and heating equipment, then thats not what we do.
i did Hvac/ refirgeration for about a year. I made decent money for being 20 years old and with very little training other then some schooling. But after a year i got fed up with it. Lomg summer days up on roofs then working out in the rain. Then when winter came dealing wiht icy roofs. it just wasnt doing it for me. One thing to look out for if you do go into that field is the amount of time you will spend on call. once i month i had to cover a whole weekend and once a week i would get a weekday night. That isnt too bad in the winter but in summer i pretty much had no life when i was on call since of the weather. One last thing would be the company letting you take home your work van. My old company didnt allow this and that pissed me right off considering all my tools were in there and when ever i needed them i had to go get them out of my truck. Like i said its decent money but in the end i said F’ it, it wasnt worth the hassle they were puttin me thru
ive been doin it for 5-6 years now. I was in the union the pay was great but you are laid off half the year. I moved to florida thinking you would make more but its not true at all the boat loads of mexicans do it for alot cheaper and you top out about $30k if youre a foreman. Down there its not a skilled trade because the majority is done with insulation and anyone can do it because if something doesnt fit u just make it there is really no skill to it. I guess in NY right now things are going good in the trade but thats because buffalo sheet metal shut down and there are alot of contracts that got divided up. The trade is honestly dieing and the only places its doing good right now is out west. My Dad used to run Buffalo Sheet and when they closed up he went to vegas where he is doing awesome because he got trained in this area where the trade school are leaps and bounds better then anywhere else.