Do you want to know the difference between HVAC certification and HVAC license? If YES, here is a detailed analysis of their similarities and differences. Being an HVAC professional takes more than just understanding the basics of air conditioning, and yet, it sometimes seems anyone with working knowledge of a unit can be a “contractor” and advertise on Craigslist.
Being a certified or licensed HVAC technician is as important to your job as it is to the person hiring you—you’re working on dangerous equipment, and people want to know you are able to do it right. Thus, you are required to undergo special training as well as having particular skills in order to obtain the permission to work with HVAC through a certificate or license.
However, certificates and licenses often tend to be mistaken. Aside from being responsible and essential for providing residential structures with satisfactory conditions, HVAC career is highly varied.
Difference Between HVAC Certification and HVAC License
HVAC Certification
Since it may consist of many aspects, some of them including refrigerating, all of these aspects require attaining their own certificates and licenses. The term HVAC Certificate stands for the documents that give the accreditation to work with HVAC. Note that these documents differ from each other, although it primarily depends on the particular coaching you have undergone to obtain them. Holding a certificate tends to be prior to obtaining an HVAC license.
Since each state has its own licensing requirements, it is advisable that one is acquainted with the ones in their state in order to attain the right certification. After doing so, to get the HVAC certificate, one needs to undergo a suitable coaching and suitable lessons. However, ahead of taking part in specialized training, one must be educated in the field of HVAC, it simply means having a large university diploma or at least a GED diploma is necessary.
Having such a document as a proof of your expertise is essential for the admittance to the majority of accredited HVAC instruction plans. Once you’ve reached the mentioned conditions, you may then take part in a particular program that trains you for setting up and restoring HVAC, which is a step forward to getting a certification and being licensed afterwards.
There is a broad range of packages that educate about and train any willing individual looking to work with HVAC, all of them quite effective. Various institutions offer such packages – they are available at different colleges and faculties. They can also be found on certain websites, being equally appropriate as the ones available at the educational facilities mentioned.
HVAC Licenses
To become an accredited HVAC provider, in some states, you will need to obtain a suitable license after completing the process of coaching successfully and earning a certification. As it was previously explained, the type of license you acquire may depend on the type of coaching and certification you must have undergone and acquired. After getting a certification, the next step is to pass a license examination.
These examinations relatively vary from one place to another. But note that the only thing common for all of them is that they mostly focus on the expertise of all the factors of installation and fixing HVAC programs. Nonetheless, some of them require the applicant to have the knowledge of electrical codes.
In addition, if your career is to include working with refrigerators as well, that will require different certifications and the conditions such as mathematics, physics and electronic drawing. If the HVAC occupation consists of contractor providers, then there are additional and special licenses to be obtained.
The requirements for a contactor provider include being at least at the age of eighteen, having a command of English and four years of experience in warm heating. The type of certification you decide to acquire depends on your working preferences and previous experience.
Naturally, the ones with more experience, for example, those who have encountered the setup of HVAC and who have at least two years of service behind them will have many more opportunities and a way broader range of different certifications to choose from.
Howbeit, before applying for taking part in a certain certification program, you have to make sure to check which license is accepted by your state. Therefore, you may need to choose a suitable program that will provide you with the right certification that can lead to getting the suitable license afterwards.
After completing all these steps, it is the time to apply for a program providing the desired certification. Before doing so, it is good to know that such programs may last from six months to about two years. Having completed such a program, the student will be given a certificate or an associate’s diploma.
- Conclusion
Acquiring various career-oriented certifications and licenses shows you can get the job done to the highest degree of quality. They prove to a potential employer that you know your way around every problem an air conditioner or heating system can throw at you.
They also give peace of mind to those who are hiring you to work on their equipment that it will be done right the first time. Licenses and certifications prove your credibility and how hireable you are, and, in the end, that’s what really matters.