ELECTRICIAN OR HVAC?

[stlhvac]

I am trying to decide whether I should go to school for hvac or to be an electrician. Can anyone compare them? If I go to a two year tech school, will I be able to become an electrician. ALso, is it harder to find and keep work in one over the other?

[Green Mountain]

Originally posted by stlhvac
I am trying to decide whether I should go to school for hvac or to be an electrician. Can anyone compare them? If I go to a two year tech school, will I be able to become an electrician. ALso, is it harder to find and keep work in one over the other?

Both trades are rewarding and lucrative. For the next five years at least there will be no unemployment for tradesmen.

What ever trade you choose strive to be the best. I personally chose HVAC because electricians are dummies.:)

[wolfdog]

Study hard and do both. They are overlapping fields.

[Roscoe]

I personally chose HVAC because electricians are dummies.
:D:D

heh heh heh

[NormChris]

When I was working for an HVAC contractor as a trainer I hired an electrician and taught him HVAC while he worked as a helper for our installers and experienced technicians. It worked out well as he was able to pick up the HVAC electrical quickly and he enjoyed learning the refrigerant and air sides as well.

To catagorize any trade as being made up of dummies shows the ignorance of the one making the statement. I have met very bright people as well as not so bright in all trades and professions.

Investigate both HVAC and electrical work and choose the one that appeals to you the most. In the case of the forementioned electrician, he was very happy that he made the switch as he was tired of bending conduit and pulling wire day after day. Now he performs a wide variety of tasks and he loves to troubleshoot. As an electrician he rarely was called upon to troubleshoot.

Norm

[Green Mountain]

Originally posted by NormChris


To catagorize any trade as being made up of dummies shows the ignorance of the one making the statement. I have met very bright people as well as not so bright in all trades and professions.

Norm



Holy crap, Norm, when you put these little :) :D :) things in a statement on the internet, doesn't that mean you are kidding around????

Okay, let me repharse this. Become an electrician because they light up my life! :(

I must be ignorant I spent 40 years in this HVAC/R trade and never collected a nickel's worth of unemployment.

[Edited by benncool on 08-31-2004 at 08:53 PM]

[NormChris]

Benn, the guy asked a serious question and was not getting a serious answer. I never bothered to see who it was that I was dissing. Ignorance occurs in all of us in all sorts of forms and at different levels. I have watched our trade knock those in other trades year after year and you have seen it as well. It gets old and is untrue. I have a great deal of respect for plumbers, electricians, carpenters and the other tradesmen. I can't do what they do and I am really impressed by those who are real craftsmen in their trade.

[frozensolid]

If you have a single focus mind become an electrician. If you are multi-dimensional in your thinking this trade is for you. This trade requires a lot of the knowledge of the other trades, and a good understanding of the refrigeration cycle.

Electricians do make excellent sprinters though. Just cut a liquid line in the motor room, you’ll see what I mean.

[nickythefish]

My advice to you is to go down to your local electricians unions hall and put yourself on the apprentice list and do an apprenticeship.Then if you want in the future take some hvac courses.What ever you do though don't get into the communications part of electrical work.I know quite a few of these guys can't find work,here in Chicago at least.

If you can learn both trades you will be a very valuable commodity.

[ice machine undertaker]

Just be careful you don't study more and more about less and less to the point that you know EVERYTHING about.....nothing.

Fred

[itsamine]

Originally posted by wolfdog
Study hard and do both. They are overlapping fields. Listen to what he said.

[wolfdog]

I have state licenses in Electrical and Hvac and the company is set up as both. It makes it easier to get things done when I can permit and do both kinds of work.

[Green Mountain]

Originally posted by wolfdog
I have state licenses in Electrical and Hvac and the company is set up as both. It makes it easier to get things done when I can permit and do both kinds of work.

We have a special State permit which allows us to wire air conditioning equipment. Occasionally, we will wire the air conditioning for a residence but we perfer that an electrical contractor do the wiring on any commercial or new construction project.

It is just a working agreement we have with the local electrical contractors. We don't do wiring and they don't move btu's. They perfer that we supply and wire all low voltage controls. Control wiring is getting more complex with zoning being more common. We have to pull a permit for low voltage wiring as well. The electricans want nothing to do with low voltage controls and are happy to have us do it.

[Edited by benncool on 09-01-2004 at 08:10 AM]

[stlhvac]

Thanks for the input guys. I was just wondering, Is there more of a problem with layoff or not getting enough hours with one of the trades over the other?

[slimwoodie]

there are 542 pipefitters on the bench as of today, and 463 sparkys .... thay's 50 % of the fitters local 'an 80 % of the ibew ...................depends on where yer ass is sittin' as far asc employment .. new york sux

[referjunkie]

If you go with the HVAC/R trade and I stress R, it heavily depends on where you live. I lived in California where you had work all year round. Not so much in the residential field though. Commercial and industrial was where it was at. I now live in the upper midwest and it just so happens this year, and I'm sure everyone else feels it up this way, was a horrible year for any portion in the field of HVAC/R. Electricians are having the same problems up this way. It was already said, if you want routine wire pulling day after day then become an electrician if you like a challenge get into commercial/ industrial HVAC/R. Colledge I went to covered, in depth, electrical.

[spotts]

Originally posted by NormChris
I have a great deal of respect for plumbers, electricians, carpenters and the other tradesmen. I can't do what they do and I am really impressed by those who are real craftsmen in their trade. [/B]


See Norm. Dats why we can call electricians DUMMIES. We CAN do what those 3 trades do and as far as I'm concerned, Damn well. Whats that old saying?
If you can, DO.
If you can't, teach.
If you can't teach, become a manufacturers rep!
thats a joke too.

[wolfdog]

Originally posted by spotts
Dats why we can call electricians DUMMIES. We CAN do what those 3 trades do and as far as I'm concerned, Damn well.


One more unkind crack and I'm gonna hafta call Bruno.:D

[slimwoodie]

you CAN ??? .... tie into a piece'o LIVE 480v buss duct ?? yea ! ... you go 'an stick yer crescent wrench in that duct ! ..can you properly terminate some medium voltage cable, and stand by as it's energized ?? were' talkin' 15 KV here, ya know .....:D ... that's wot Real electricians do ... i hope ya don't think runnin' a few feet of range cable to your disconnect is real 'lectric work ... :(

[condenseddave]

Originally posted by slimwoodie
you CAN ??? .... tie into a piece'o LIVE 480v buss duct ?? yea ! ... you go 'an stick yer crescent wrench in that duct ! ..can you properly terminate some medium voltage cable, and stand by as it's energized ?? were' talkin' 15 KV here, ya know .....:D ... that's wot Real electricians do ... i hope ya don't think runnin' a few feet of range cable to your disconnect is real 'lectric work ... :(

Don't ferget the Romex jockeys!

You've all heard that classical music "Ride of the Romex Jockeys", right?:D:D

LOL. Hop on the box and ride the rafters.:p

Hiho Silver! Away!!!!!!!!:D

There is a lot more to a LOT of trades than most of us realize, that's for certain. I do work in a lot of different ends of this field, being in supermarket work, well, I have to, because work in supermarkets pays about as well as actually working IN one, unless you're able to do more than just keep freezers frozen and coolers not frozen.

I wouldn't even attempt plumbing (again) after the few sinks that have laid a severe asskicking upon me, because of not only a lack of knowledge, but a lack of proper tools and materials on hand.

I will NEVER, EVER attempt rubber roof repair again. I don't even want to get on THAT on-ramp.:rolleyes:

I have been asked very nicely to quit trying to repair holes that I make in drywall, also, and will honor that request graciously.

Concrete work is also someone else's job.

I will, however, do all of their electric, welding, case lighting, drain opening, (To the extent of my abilities)
checkstand repair, phone work, and even grocery cart repair, that they are willing to pay me for, on top of the HVACR that I'm supposed to be doing. I also act as a general contractor at times for some of them.

[condenseddave]

Originally posted by wolfdog

Originally posted by spotts
Dats why we can call electricians DUMMIES. We CAN do what those 3 trades do and as far as I'm concerned, Damn well.


One more unkind crack and I'm gonna hafta call Bruno.:D

Bruno Bagadonuts, of the Staten Island Bagadonuts???:p:D

[srmfsr]

I, like Wolfie, have state master's licenses in both trades. I was an industrial electrican before I got in this field. But in having both you have diversity and are not locked up in one trade. This way I am busy all the time, sometimes too much. I do very little residential electrical work. I love industrial troubleshooting and controls. Most of my HVAC is residential.

[wolfdog]

Originally posted by condenseddave
Bruno Bagadonuts, of the Staten Island Bagadonuts???:p:D

Yea, dats dem.

[glitho]

HVAC deals with electricity on to do 99 percent of our troubleshooting while electricians dont have the power on to do theres. An electrician told me our jobs (HVAC) is more dangerous then theirs is. I Love the field of HVAC but since work here in the DFW area of Texas is hard to find I'm begining to think I am in the wrong field or maybe the wrong city/state