The Inside Scoop on HVAC

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I became an HVAC installer just before my 35th birthday. Though I’d hardly swung a hammer even once in my whole life, I decided to enter the trades after getting married and realizing that — if I wanted to live a traditional lifestyle in which the husband works outside the home and the wife works inside the home — my security guard wages were not going to cut it. I also wanted to embark on a career in which my work would genuinely help other people and had a low chance of being replaced by AI; after looking at the plumbing and electrical worlds as well, I decided to enter the field of HVAC.

Knowing nothing about the trade and not having a single connection, I simply searched on the internet for “HVAC near me” and found a shop 4 minutes from my house. I walked in and introduced myself, telling them I knew nothing about the industry but was willing to work hard and learn. They gave me an interview shortly afterward, and I felt very much like a fish out of water.

The first part of the interview was a tool-identification test in which they showed me pictures of nearly 50 different tools and asked me to choose the correct name from 3 or 4 different options. I knew the answer to 1 or 2, and correctly guessed about a dozen more. The second part of the interview was a “shop math” test, asking questions about basic arithmetic which I answered without any difficulty. The final test was on block-rotation, in which I was asked to mentally rotate varying numbers of blocks of different shapes and then choose the correct configuration of what they’d look like when assembled all together. That is the day I learned that I have no almost no ability whatsoever to visualize and rotate objects mentally.

Despite what must have been an overwhelmingly poor test performance, the conversational part of the interview got me into a role as an “Install Helper.” My job was to show up at 7am in the morning, load up the truck while the Lead Installer gathered the appropriate paperwork and discussed details of a given project with management, and then help him do what are called either “change-outs” or “retrofits:” removing an old HVAC system from a house and then installing a new one in its place. That company also did quite a bit of new construction work, in which my job involved building and hanging ductwork before installing the systems in new homes or other buildings.

I am not sure I have ever learned so much in so little time; in retrospect, it would have been a far wiser decision to enter the trades upon graduating high school than it was to attend an out-of-state college for my Psychology degree. I learned about tools, physics, chemistry, safety, construction, and many other things which I had never seen or — in many cases — even considered before. I was constantly injured and came home in pain nearly every single day on the job, as I spent countless hours crouched over in dark attics or crawling under houses in the dirt. It paid a lot better than security and in many ways was more rewarding, but I quickly realized that the installer life was too hard on my body to consider it a long-term career path. One injury that I will likely never forget involved squeezing two pieces of ductwork while trying to screw them together with a drill; I drilled the screw directly into my finger on the other side of the sheet metal and, since by that time the screw was successfully holding the sheet behind it in place, I then had the distinct joy of having to reverse the drill’s direction before unscrewing the screw from my finger.

Good times.

I inquired about becoming a Service Technician — the role I had initially wanted upon deciding to enter the industry — and was informed that there were no more Technician roles available at that particular company. So I applied to another company, which offered to hire me as a Maintenance Technician (a lower-level Technician role as a step towards becoming a full Service Technician), and I accepted the offer on the spot.

In some ways it felt like starting all over: new tools, new problems to solve, and a whole new vocabulary to learn. This role also included driving around on my own for the first time, going house-to-house according to my dispatcher’s whims, interacting with homeowners interested in preventative maintenance on their systems. Generally such clients are part of an HVAC company’s “Maintenance Plan:” a yearly plan with a monthly or annual fee which includes several prepaid appointments during which a Technician will inspect a homeowner’s furnace, air conditioner, or both. Many companies which offer these plans also include plumbing and electrical inspections as part of these yearly check-ups.

In either case, a full year as a Maintenance Technician will teach any newcomer most of what he needs to know about how the different machines are supposed to work. If you enter this role at a company that does not prioritize technical training, I recommend the YouTube channels “Word of Advice TV” and '“AC Service Tech LLC.” If you’re very technically-minded, you may even enjoy the channel “HVAC School.” You can learn more than enough from these channels to become a competent — if not excellent — Technician.

Before continuing, allow me to say a word about enrolling in an actual Trade School. In general I believe Trade School is a waste of time unless they can guarantee you a job after graduation. I did not attend a single day of Trade School, choosing instead to study the materials at home before going in only to take the tests, and no company I’m aware of seems to care whether you’ve actually graduated from a real school. Most of what you need to know will be learned in the field, and my friends who went through Trade School instead of learning on-the-job were woefully unprepared for dealing with real-world situations; they could diagnose and clean systems in perfect laboratory settings, but Trade School teaches you nothing about how to deal with the colorful cast of homeowners you are sure to meet on this job.

Trade School does not prepare you for the homeowner who opens the door and instantly begins cursing and insulting your company because your plumbers just dragged their dirty shoes across her white carpet. It does not prepare you for homes that smell like there may actually be human bodies rotting in the walls and which you will absolutely not feel safe entering. It does not prepare you for the chain-smokers whose walls are yellow and will not stop smoking while you’re working on the gas line unless you firmly point out why they need to stop. There is a world of difference between working on a circuit board in a classroom and working on one with a cat trying to jump into the furnace. So again, I do not really recommend bothering with Trade School unless you’ve already applied to local jobs and can’t get hired without going that route.

It does not take long, as a Maintenance Technician, to discover the vast difference between one’s hourly pay and the various forms of bonuses one can earn by achieving different goals at a house. For example, inspecting a system and leaving with nothing “extra” nets you nothing but your hourly pay; by way of comparison, many companies offer bonuses (usually called “spiffs” in this industry) for things like renewing a client on the yearly plan or receiving a public 5-star review from the homeowner. These little $5 or $10 spiffs add up quickly throughout the course of a day — but the biggest spiffs are won by earning extra business for the company through repairing parts which are functioning poorly or adding, for example, germicidal UV Lights or Humidifiers to a homeowner’s system. On top of the spiffs, you’ll quickly realize how much money can be made if you “flip the call” to a salesman and he or she sells them a new system — and it is once this reality truly sets in that the Technician discovers who he is.

There is no shortage of horror stories one can hear from unhappy homeowners regarding being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous Technician; this is just as true for the HVAC trade as it is for automotive service. Reddit thread after Reddit thread warn about certain companies sending “salesmen disguised as technicians” to homes, and depending on the company there is a great deal of truth to this perception. Several news channels have actually set up stings by which multiple HVAC Technicians are invited to fix a problem — not knowing that they are on camera and part of a TV investigation — in order to discover who is honest and who is just there to scam the homeowner. This is why A) all Technicians should assume that they are always being filmed, and B) any good company will instantly fire any Technician who lies to homeowners.

As a friend of mine on the sales side says, “Don’t sell your soul for HVAC.”

The transition from Installer to Technician is also, generally speaking, where one begins to learn the most about his fellow man. Having worked in thousands of homes, I have seen the human being in all possible stages of life: the newly-wed couple who just bought their first house; the established family with many children; elderly couples, or widows, or widowers, trying to set their family up for success after they pass; the single man in his 40s whose obsession with toys is likely a main cause of his loneliness; the single mother who cannot seem to help but flirt with every tradesman she meets; the drunk; the stoned; the hoarders; those who allow their pets to defecate on the floor, with no intention whatsoever of cleaning. You will meet people who will make you feel unsafe from the moment you enter their homes. You will go to a call just to find junkies passed out in various stages of disrobing. You will enter family homes so disgusting that you’ll consider calling Child Protective Services. Oh, the places you’ll go!

This is also where you begin to learn the old adage which simply states: “buyers are liars.” People will swear up and down they are the only decision-makers involved, just to let you know — after hours of free work — that they don’t even own the home, but are watching it for their parents who live in another country. “Just send me an e-mail and I’m sure they’ll get back to you soon!” A Technician quickly begins to recognize demographic patterns as well, learning to sigh with despair when a Chinese or Indian name pops up on his dispatching software. When you understand how Chinese people make financial decisions (“low number good, big number bad, no matter what either includes”) you will likely never buy a Chinese product again. After all, if this is how individuals make decisions for their homes — decisions which directly affect the health and well-being of their families — how much confidence do you have in the durability and safety of products they mass-produce for others?

Though it pains me to say it, you will also quickly learn just how little power most married men have. You will meet macho “alpha” husbands with 10-inch arms, who will make a big show of letting you know that they’re in charge here and that their wives will defer to them for any big decisions, only to see a sheepish grin at the end as they admit that they “need to ask the boss first.” After years on the job I would estimate that, in the area I live and work in, perhaps 10% of men make such decisions for their families. I have met men who work long hours and hard jobs whose wives control their finances and sometimes let them have “an allowance.” I have met otherwise competent, talented men who do not even have access to their own bank accounts. Though on occasion this will turn out to be incorrect, it is usually safe to assume the woman is in charge…

Unless she is unmarried and living by herself. In these cases, all but the most left-brained women will immediately go into fight-or-flight mode when asked to make a decision and — regardless of what they told you when you first arrived — need to consult with a variety of men before they will fix or replace a broken furnace in the winter. Brothers, cousins, uncles, etc. — it is almost always a “group decision” with unmarried women and this is a dynamic you will learn to expect.

One year to the day after starting as a Maintenance Technician — nearly two years after embarking on my HVAC journey — I finally became a Service Technician with all the licenses and certifications required. As opposed to the cleaning and tune-ups which most preventative maintenance calls entail, Service is where — at least for me — the HVAC world became truly fun: you get to work with both your body and your brain, diagnosing problems and solving them. You learn about wiring diagrams, the order-of-operations for various machines, and how to trace out a chain of cause-and-effect in order to determine where a failure occurred. Depending on what broke and why, this can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to an entire day (or even two if it’s really hard to pin down). In this role you also find yourself driving an hour or more just to arrive at the home and realize the A/C “wasn’t working” because the homeowners had the Thermostat set to “Heat.” Sometimes they had bumped the Furnace Switch and the problem was solved in less than a minute; an hour there, an hour back, and you essentially get paid nothing for your time.

Some days you’ll be the dog, and other days you’ll be the hydrant.

However, this is where we must discuss the importance of the company for which you work. Different companies, with different positioning in your region, will have wildly-different pay structures. Their size, specialization, and ownership matter greatly. As a general rule there are two types of companies you’ll encounter: those owned by a Private Equity group and those locally-owned and operated instead. Many Private Equity groups, after purchasing a local company, keep the branding (and even management) of that company in order to maintain a veneer of local ownership. Each structure has pros and cons.

If you work for a locally-owned company, some of the pros you’ll enjoy include: A) less pressure to sell upgrades on every single job, B) infinitely fewer meetings, C) fewer homeowners getting upset about your pricing, and D) more of a family feel to the company culture. At the same time, you will: A) be compensated far more poorly, B) never be sure the company will still exist in 5 years’ time, since statistically 60% of all new HVAC companies fail in their first year and another 20% are bankrupt by year 5, C) be more likely to encounter nepotism in management when it comes to the owner’s family, and D) rarely (if ever) receive structured, high-quality training.

If you work for a Private Equity-owned company, some of the pros you’ll enjoy include: A) the potential to make (at least) twice as much money as you could at a local shop, B) the job security of knowing that the company is not going bankrupt anytime soon, C) a company-provided vehicle and uniform, along with all maintenance and gas costs paid by said company, D) the potential to work your way from the “service” to the “operational” side of either your specific brand or the PE umbrella which owns it, E) much more work in the “slow seasons” — ie, when the weather is between 50 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside — than you can rely on with most smaller shops, and F) constant sales and technical training (which some people like and some people do not). On the other hand, you can expect: A) all sales and revenue metrics tracked, with various forms of discipline heading your way if you are not making the company enough money, B) generally higher pricing on both repairs and system replacements, meaning you will lose bids and work to cheaper companies from “price shopping” clients, C) early-morning weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual meetings, and D) the stigma that some homeowners associate with companies owned by Private Equity.

Some prefer the pro-con tradeoff of Private Equity; many prefer the more casual and low-pressure atmosphere found in the locally-owned world instead. Having said all that, here is what you can expect when it comes to pay for different roles.

1. Installer. Generally speaking, you will be paid at either a flat hourly rate or what is called “piece rate:” a specific amount of money for every piece you install. If you are paid by “piece rate,” for example, you will make more money to install a Furnace and Air Conditioner than you will to install just a Furnace (even if both jobs hypothetically take the same amount of time). If the salesman also sold a Humidifier or extra Ductwork, for example, you will get paid extra for everything that you do. Since Installers typically work in teams, some companies will pay the Lead Installer by piece rate and the Install Helper by the hour.

2. Maintenance/Service Technician. These pay structures depend entirely on the company and whether there is a Union involved. Some companies pay Technicians a higher hourly rate of anywhere from $30 to $60 per hour and do not care in the slightest whether said Technicians sell additional upgrades. Others pay a lower hourly rate — anywhere from $10 to $25 per hour — as a base, with most of the Technicians’ pay coming from spiffs, commissions, and bonuses instead. One local company offers Technicians a flat 18% commission on anything they sell, with no hourly or salary base whatsoever. In these latter two cases, the companies are designed around sales and Technicians who are better with machines than people will typically find a better fit at the high-hourly-pay companies instead (unless they have a unique arrangement with the company in question, for example as a specialized Warranty Technician). Technicians who are good with both machines and people will do well anywhere they go, but can generally earn a lot more at companies with a lower hourly base and a higher commission/bonus structure.

3. Salesman. In the world of HVAC salesmen are typically referred to as Comfort Advisors, Comfort Consultants, Comfort Engineers, Design Consultants, or other titles with various combinations of these words. Generally speaking, an HVAC Salesman will work purely on commission — though in some cases, a low yearly salary also provides a financial “safety net” which can be helpful during the slower seasons. Around 75% of the revenue at some companies is made during June, July, and August; most salesmen quickly learn not to expect the same kind of income during the rest of the year as they can during peak heat season, and subsequently the wisdom of saving one’s “summer money” rather than spending it all at once.

   As a salesman your leads will come primarily from two different sources: those generated by the Technicians in the field (after a homeowner decides the repairs may cost too much and considers buying a whole new system instead), and those generated by people reaching out to multiple companies to come compete for the job at their home. The former are usually called Tech Sets, Tech Gens, or Tech Leads; the latter are Marketed Leads. Some companies also give an extra couple of percent in commission for Self-Generated Leads, since in those cases the company has not paid for them by way of either sending a Technician to the house first or by fighting for a top spot on Google with internet advertising, and so many HVAC salesmen will prospect for their own pipeline as well. Some companies offer a role which blends the Service Technician and Salesman roles, usually calling this a “Selling Technician” or “Senior Technician” or sometimes “Field Supervisor"; these Technicians work as regular Technicians until a homeowner asks about system-replacement costs, at which point he can provide options for a new system without having to call a Comfort Advisor out at all.
   

   Generally speaking, the more sales-oriented your role, the more money you can potentially make — though companies which truly seek to attract the best Installers may also incentivize them to work for that company by offering the opportunity to sell extras like Duct Cleaning and IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) once the install has already begun. Installers at the right company can make plenty of money, and some people choose to remain Installers for their entire careers. One friend of mine began in Install, switched to Service, and then went back to Install afterward. The main benefit of staying with Install is the predictable schedule which, in very clear opposition to what you can expect as a Service Technician — no late-night on-call demands. But your body will eventually pay the price, and at the end of the day everyone in this field had to choose on the best balance between schedule, pain, and pay.

   Each role has pros and cons, but regardless of which role you choose you will always be faced with moral dilemmas — and this is what separates the ethical tradesmen from the scumbags and the swindlers that nobody likes. For example, as an Installer, you will find — should you look for them — plenty of creative ways to save time on the job. Using cheaper or inappropriate materials, skipping steps entirely, or not really bothering to wrap the tape all the way around that hard-to-reach ductwork are all time-tested ways to short-change your clients. Will they really notice if you don’t actually caulk the Evaporator Coil to the Furnace? Won’t foil tape really do just as good a job? For the record, no it will not and yes — some clients will absolutely notice. Then you get to drive back the house later, hanging your head with embarrassment, to fix a job you should have done correctly the first time.

   And what about that ever-so-tiny dent you made in the drywall when you were dragging the old Furnace up the stairs while being distracted by a conversation on your earphones? Will they really notice? And if they do, will you confess to your mistake or try to convince them that the dent was already there? Maybe the plumbers did that yesterday while they were getting the carpet dirty.

   Being a Technician brings with it a whole new world of dishonest opportunity. Will you admit to breaking their Flame Sensor because you cleaned it with sandpaper, or will you charge them $125 for a new one because you “found it broken during the tuneup?” You found some dust on their Blower Wheel — can it be easily cleaned with Dust-Off, or does it require a $435 power wash? Your clients have no idea what the microfarad tolerances on their Capacitor are — would they really know that you were lying to sell them a $400 Amrad when their $20 Titan was perfectly fine? Just think of the $10 spiff!

   Though many think of salesmen as the slimiest of the bunch — and this can certainly be true, depending on the person — I actually think there is far less moral ambiguity in sales than there is as a Technician. Their system is broken and they need a new one; there is really nothing mechanical to lie about. However, you will run into dangerous conversations in which the Technician lied to get you in the house and leave you facing the dilemma of trying to sell them a new system anyway or risk the wrath of your boss by telling the homeowner the truth (though of course this should be worded diplomatically: “I totally understand why he said what he said, it’s a really easy mistake to make. However, now that we’ve got a second pair of eyes out here, I really can’t confirm the results of his diagnosis.”)

   Generally speaking, unethical salesman cross moral boundaries more by way of high-pressure sales tactics and the classic “over-promise, under-deliver” than necessarily by stating things that are outright false. Even this has exceptions, however; I personally know a Comfort Advisor who regularly lies to homeowners, raising his “average ticket” by telling them that there’s an “EPA Mandate” stating that they legally must replace the Furnace and Air Conditioner together instead of only doing one or the other. The same individual once did a training at a company I worked for, instructing the Technicians not to call the parts by their real names but rather using vague and obtuse language so that homeowners could not look up the parts. Two of our best Technicians almost quit on the spot.

   Whatever you do, wherever you go, you will find opportunity to both make money and purify your soul. You will face unexpected temptations and discover how easy it is, in the short run, to make more money or get out of trouble by lying. You will learn recession-proof skills that can not only provide for your family, but also potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars by working on your own machines. You will get hurt. You will question your sanity and whether you should even have “signed up for this” in the first place. You will have great days, terrible days, and everything in between — but at the end of the day, it’s something that people will always need and that a robot can never truly replace.

   And whatever your role, remember the question asked by Jesus Christ Himself: “What does it profit a man to gain the world if he lose his soul?”