Gary Sprott - HVAC Techs

ON THE JOB

I magine living in steamy Louis iana without air condit ioning. Or snowy Montana without hea t. High-t ech cooling units and furnaces mak e it possible f or us to contr ol the temperatu re wherever w e live. Not too hot. No t too cold. Hey , just like Goldilocks!

HVA C techs are the profess ionals who know all about thes e systems. We can thank them for being comfor table year-round .

A Red-Hot Job Market!

There are about 370,000 HVAC techs in the United States. That number is rising faster than the temperature in Arizona in July! The push to use less energy and lower pollution means more jobs for techs.

HV AC techs insta ll and maintain heating, ventilation , and air conditioning syste ms in homes, schoo ls, busines ses, and other buildings. They inspect and re pair broken equipment and replace old part s. HV AC techs help control air qualit y and tempera ture. This lets people study , work, and shop in comfort able and safe environments.

ventilation (ven-tuh-LA Y- shuhn): the process o f bringing fresh air in and pus hing stale air out

HV AC techs use di erent ways to heat buildings. Some heat ers burn oil or gas. O thers wa rm water for a radiator .

HVA C techs also know how to cool things o . Refr igeration keeps food fre sh as it tr avels f rom a farm or wa rehouse to a groc ery storeand then t o your kitchen! Profes sionals who wo rk with these systems may be called HV AC R techs. The R is for refrigera tion .

radiator (RA Y- dee-ay- tur): a ser ies of pipes that ci rculate hot w ater or st eam to heat a room

Refrigerated trucks help keep ice cream icy until it hits your tongue!

These are ruins of a Roman hypocaust. They were also used in bath houses to keep the water hot.

P eople have been fi nding new ways t o stay toasty ever since they discovered fire. The anci ent Romans used a syste m called a hypocaust . Fires were kept burning in a basement under the building. Rising hot air warm ed the flo ors of Roman homes. No wo nder the Romans were al ways wearing sandals!

Chilling Out in the Sunshine State

In 1940, about two million people lived in hot, humid Florida. Today, there are nearly 22 million! What happened? Air conditioning happened! The cooling technology led to a population boom.

H eating and cooling buildings uses lots o f energy . Most energy is prod uced by burning nonrenewable resources , such as coal and natur al gas. But, they are not good for the planet .

HVA C techs help by installing systems that use green energy , also called renewa ble energy . Solar panels captu re the sun s warmth. Ge othermal syst ems tap into planet Ear th itself! Wa ter is heated or chilled as it f lows through underground pipes . Down the re, the tempera ture stays pretty steady year-round .